Neurasthenic Nation
Neurasthenic Nation
America's Search for Health, Happiness, and Comfort, 1869-1920
As the United States rushed toward industrial and technological modernization in the late nineteenth century, people worried that the workplace had become too competitive, the economy too turbulent, domestic chores too taxing, while new machines had created a fast-paced environment that sickened the nation. Physicians testified that, without a doubt, modern civilization was causing a host of ills—everything from irritability to insomnia, lethargy to weight loss, anxiety to lack of ambition, and indigestion to impotence. They called this condition neurasthenia.
Neurasthenic Nation investigates how the concept of neurasthenia helped doctors and patients, men and women, and advertisers and consumers negotiate changes commonly associated with “modernity.” Combining a survey of medical and popular literature on neurasthenia with original research into rare archives of personal letters, patient records, and corporate files, David Schuster charts the emergence of a “neurasthenic nation”—a place where people saw their personal health as inextricably tied to the pitfalls and possibilities of a changing world.
David Schuster's Neurasthenic Nation provides a vivid and compelling account of neurasthenia and its place in American medicine and culture.
[An] excellent study. The book is a worthy addition to the voluminous literature on neurasthenia.
David G. Schuster provides a comprehensive examination of the origins and nature of [neurasthenia], but more importantly he captures why it became such an important social, economic, and cultural phenomenon, as well as why, after 1920, it declined so precipitously.
Neurasthenic Nation offers a thoughtful and accessible guide to the history of neurasthenia in the United States, one especially sensitive to the role of gender and the relationship between clinicians and clients.
DAVID G. SCHUSTER is an assistant professor of history at Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne.
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1 Professional Medicine and the Discovery of Neurasthenia
Chapter 2 The Popular Diagnosis
Chapter 3 The Search for Inspiration: Neurasthenia and Therapeutic Spirituality
Chapter 4 Neurasthenia, Health, and Gender
Chapter 5 Lifestyle and Managing the Healthy Balance
Chapter 6 The Decline of Neurasthenia
Epilogue: Neurasthenia’s Legacy
Notes
Index
