The Shaking Woman

Resumen del libro

In this unique neurological memoir, Siri Hustvedt attempts to solve her own mysterious condition

While speaking at a memorial event for her father in 2006, Siri Hustvedt suffered a violent seizure from the neck down. Despite her flapping arms and shaking legs, she continued to speak clearly and was able to finish her speech. It was as if she had suddenly become two people: a calm orator and a shuddering wreck. Then the seizures happened again and again. "The Shaking Woman" tracks Hustvedt's search for a diagnosis, one that takes her inside the thought processes of several scientific disciplines, each one of which offers a distinct perspective on her paroxysms but no ready solution. In the process, she finds herself entangled in fundamental questions: What is the relationship between brain and mind? How do we remember? What is the self?

During her investigations, Hustvedt joins a discussion group in which neurologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, and brain scientists trade ideas to develop a new field: neuropsychoanalysis. She volunteers as a writing teacher for psychiatric in-patients at the Payne Whitney clinic in New York City and unearths precedents in medical history that illuminate the origins of and shifts in our theories about the mind-body problem. In "The Shaking Woman," Hustvedt synthesizes her experience and research into a compelling mystery: Who is the shaking woman? In the end, the story she tells becomes, in the words of George Makari, author of "Revolution in Mind," "a brilliant illumination for us all."

Biografía del autor

Nació en Minnesota en 1955. Licenciada en Filología Inglesa por la Universidad de Columbia, es una aclamada autora de novelas y ensayos: Leer para ti (1982); Los ojos vendados (1992; Seix Barral, 2018), Premio de la Crítica Internacional en el Festival de Cine de Berlín por su adaptación cinematográfica; El hechizo de Lily Dahl (1996); En lontananza (1998); Todo cuanto amé (2003; Seix Barral, 2018), Premio de Libreros del Québec y Premio Femina Étranger, finalista del Premio Llibreter y del Waterstones Literary Fiction Award; Una súplica para Eros (2005); Los misterios del rectángulo (2005); Elegía para un americano (2008; Seix Barral, 2019); La mujer temblorosa o la historia de mis nervios (2009; Seix Barral, 2020); Ocho viajes con Simbad: palabra e imagen (2011); El verano sin hombres (2011; Seix Barral, 2020), finalista del Premio Femina Étranger; Vivir, pensar, mirar (2012); El mundo deslumbrante (2014; Seix Barral, 2024), Premio al mejor libro de ficción de Los Angeles Times, finalista del Dublin Literary Award y seleccionada para el Premio Booker, La mujer que mira a los hombres que miran a las mujeres (Seix Barral, 2017), Recuerdos del futuro (Seix Barral, 2019), Los espejismos de la certeza (Seix Barral, 2021) y Madres, padres y demás (Seix Barral, 2022). Ha recibido el Premio Princesa de Asturias de las Letras en 2019 y el Gabarron International Award de pensamiento y humanidades en 2012. En 2014 fue nombrada doctora honoris causa por la Universidad de Oslo y en 2023 por la Universidad Menéndez Pelayo de Santander. Doctora y conferenciante sobre temas de psiquiatría en la Facultad de Medicina Weill Cornell de Nueva York, colabora regularmente en The New York Times y Psychology Today.