The Things You Can Read: 7 Horrifying Ailments Named After Literary Characters

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Monday, August 5, 2013

7 Horrifying Ailments Named After Literary Characters

Image Credit: billdomonkos

Having just read and reviewed The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry , I learned a great deal about the methodology used in adding new psychiatric diseases to the approved list. Really interesting stuff! New diagnoses are added each year. Where do these folks get the names for these diseases? Well, some come right off the pages of classic literature. Would you believe that there are a number of diagnoses that are perfect for a bibliophile, or are they? Here are 7 Horrifying Aliments Named After Literary Characters, which you probably would not want to be diagnosed as suffering from due to their horrendous symptoms, need an example? Try this one on for size:

Rapunzel Syndrome
Named after: Rapunzel, in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, who let her flowing hair down to allow the prince to climb into the tower where she was held captive.
Symptoms: How disgusting could a condition be if it’s named after a beautiful maiden with golden tresses tantalizing enough to get her royal booty calls on the reg? Pretty damned disgusting. Rapunzel Syndrome is a condition in which someone ingests enough hair that it forms a dense hairball—“trichobezoar” if you’re feelin’ fancy—in their stomach that eventually spawns a long rope of hair (Rapunzel, see?) that trails into the victim’s intestines. The intestinal hair rope can be several feet long. Trust me when I say you do NOT want to Google Image Search this.
Causes: The good news, unless you suffer from trichophagia (the urge to compulsively eat hair), is that only people with trichophagia are at risk. If you don’t munch on your locks, you’re not going to develop a giant ball of hair in your guts.
Misery factor: 10 out of 10. Once it’s large enough, the hairball causes abdominal pain, nausea, bloating, vomiting, and, without surgery, death.-Lit Reactor

Click on over to Lit Reactor to find out more about the "7 horrifying ailments named after literary characters." Which one is your favorite? Let us know here at The Things You Can Read!

Happy reading to all! ☮

Happy Reading☮

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