Neurasthenic Nation

America's Search for Health, Happiness, and Comfort, 1869-1920

Bibliographic Data

ID5706450
AuthorsEdward Shorter (0000-0002-5126-8627, University of Toronto, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume99
Issue2
Pages614-615
Publication date2012-09-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of American History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jahist/jas281
OpenAlexW2334928489
LanguageEN
Citations received19

Neurasthenic Nation reignites an interesting debate: Does medical history study imaginary or real diseases? For David G. Schuster, neurasthenia is a cultural figment that helped Americans deal with the growing stresses of the late nineteenth century: “Neurasthenia recast many unpleasant aspects of life as undesirable byproducts of a nation trying to evolve and improve faster than the natural abilities of its citizenry could keep pace” (p. 1). So the term, literally meaning tired nerves, was a diagnosis of convenience for people who really had nothing wrong with them but who complained of overwork and stress. An alternative view postulates that a form of low-level psychiatric illness, involving depressed mood, anxiety, fatigue, somatic symptoms, and preoccupation with such symptoms, has always existed. This approach argues that nervous illness, as we might call it, is real and has probably not changed substantially from one era to another. Investigating neurasthenia as a chapter in the larger history of nervous illness exemplifies this alternate perspective

Anxiety · Art · Economics · Happiness · Meaning (existential · Mood · Neurasthenia · Overwork · Pace · Perspective (graphical · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Medical History and Innovations · Medicine · Neurology and Historical Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology

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