Simpleology Blog

I recently got hold of The Paranoid's Pocket Guide to Mental Disorders You Can Just Feel Coming On by Dennis DiClaudio--and I must say this book has informed and amused me.

This handy guide to the most baffling head cases in existence contains concise tongue-in-cheek descriptions that would thrill even the most extreme information junkies. I had a blast reading about ailments that could best be described as "stranger than fiction."

The Jerusalem Syndrome, for example, is a delusion that overcomes tourists who travel to Jerusalem for the first time. Those who suffer from it suddenly feel the urge to don religious garments or start speaking in tongues. (Yes, it only happens in Jerusalem.)

Then there's the baffling Foreign Accent Syndrome. The sufferers of this mental condition suddenly begin to speak in accents--even if they've never lived or traveled abroad. DiClaudio cites an example of a woman who simply started speaking with an authentic French accent though she had never been to the said country.

These are just a couple of the least popular but highly bizarre head cases in existence today.

While the book doesn't pretend to be anything else but a listing of all these strange ailments, it is a great read because, heck, it sure taught me a lot of new things. I guess one could say that DiClaudio has produced "food for the brain."

Now, isn't that ironic?