Intolerant bodies: a short history of autoimmunity PDF
Preview Intolerant bodies: a short history of autoimmunity
INTOLERANT BODIES JOHNS HOPKINS BIOGRAPHIES OF DISEASE Charles E. Rosenberg, Series Editor Randall M. Packard, The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria Steven J. Peitzman, Dropsy, Dialysis, Transplant: A Short History of Failing Kidneys David Healy, Mania: A Short History of Bipolar Disorder Susan D. Jones, Death in a Small Package: A Short History of Anthrax Allan V. Horwitz, Anxiety: A Short History Diane B. Paul and Jeff rey P. Brosco, The PKU Paradox: A Short History of a Ge ne tic Disease Gerald N. Grob, Aging Bones: A Short History of Osteoporosis Christopher Hamlin, More Than Hot: A Short History of Fever Warwick Anderson and Ian R. Mackay, Intolerant Bodies: A Short History of Autoimmunity Intoler ant Bodies y y y A Short History of Autoimmunity Warwick Anderson and Ian R. Mackay Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore © 2014 Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2014 Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Mary land 21218- 4363 www .press .jhu .edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Anderson, Warwick, 1958– author. Intolerant bodies : a short history of autoimmunity / Warwick Anderson and Ian R. Mackay. p. ; cm. — (Johns Hopkins biographies of disease) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4214-1533-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 1-4214-1533-X (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4214-1534-5 (electronic) — ISBN 1-4214-1534-8 (electronic) I. Mackay, Ian R., author. II. Title. III. Series: Johns Hopkins biographies of disease. [DNLM: 1. Autoimmune Diseases—history. WD 305] RC600 616.97'8—dc23 2014006735 A cata log record for this book is available from the British Library. Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at 410- 516- 6936 or [email protected]. Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post- consumer waste, whenever possible. Dedicated to Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz and Ian Jeff reys Wood This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Foreword, by Charles E. Rosenberg ix Introduction: Thinking Autoimmunity 1 Chapter 1. Physiology with Obstacles 7 Chapter 2. Immunological Thought Styles 26 Chapter 3. A Sense of Unlimited Possibilities 47 Chapter 4. The Science of Self 71 Chapter 5. Doing Biographical Work 92 Chapter 6. Reframing Self 116 Afterword: Becoming Autoimmune, or Being Not 139 Ac know ledg ments 155 Notes 159 Bibliography 197 Index 243 This page intentionally left blank FOREWORD Disease we have always had with us. Our ancestors suff ered pains in their joints, debilitating coughs and exhausting diarrheas, sore throats and bloody urine, painful and sometimes mortal swellings. Ancient bones tell us that pathological pro cesses are older than written rec ords. And such written rec ords tell us that there has never been a time when men and women have not elaborated ways of explaining the incidence and nature of such ills— often in con- nection with ideas about their prognosis and treatment. But older descriptions and terminology do not track easily onto twenty-fi rst- century categories and understandings; such terms as dropsy, con- tinued fever, old age, and bloody fl ux no longer populate our death certifi cates. What, we are tempted to ask, w ere the “actual” ills from which our ancestors suff ered and died? Today’s scholars who are con- cerned with past morbidity and mortality cannot avoid starting with their own understandings, with a repertoire of specifi c disease entities. We have come, in the course of the past two centuries, to think of such entities as having a characteristic clinical picture, and of that picture as being the consequence of an underlying mecha- nism of some sort— whether it be the response to a microorganism, a malfunctioning kidney, or a ge ne tic mutation. Where we have not yet agreed on such a mechanism, we assume that it will ulti- mately be revealed. And we have come to think of these entities apart from their manifestation in the bodies of par tic u lar individu- als; they have become things that can be coded, arranged in orderly classifi cations, subjected to agreed- upon treatment protocols. Of course, each of these specifi c entities that we take for granted has a history and a geog raphi c al distribution related to that history. Thus the rationale underlying the Johns Hopkins University Press’s ix
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