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Morita therapy is known as a psychotherapy grounded in the culture of Japan, particularly its Buddhist culture. Its popularity in Japan and other East Asian countries is cited as an example of the relevance and importance of culture and religion in psychotherapy. To complement such interpretations, this study adopts a socio-historical approach to examine the role and significance of work in Morita's theory and practice within the broader work environment and culture of the 1920s and 1930s in Japan. Morita conceptualized shinkeishitsu as a personality disease and a social illness caused by an alienating work environment. He proposed a remedy that emphasized the subjective emotional experience of work. To his primarily middle-class clients and readers, Morita's reconciliation between the self and society and that between autonomy and compliance was persuasive and useful, providing a philosophy whereby they could integrate into the work environment without loss of self-worth. The socio-historical character of Morita therapy is vital to understanding its power and appeal during Morita's time. Moreover, it sheds light on the complex interrelationships between work, mental health, and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long COVID is a common sequela of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Data from numerous scientific studies indicate that long COVID involves a complex interaction between pathophysiological processes. Long COVID may involve the development of new diagnosable health conditions and exacerbation of pre-existing health conditions. However, despite this rapidly accumulating body of evidence regarding the pathobiology of long COVID, psychogenic and functional interpretations of the illness presentation continue to be endorsed by some healthcare professionals, creating confusion and inappropriate diagnostic and therapeutic pathways for people living with long COVID. The purpose of this perspective is to present a clinical and scientific rationale for why long COVID should not be considered as a functional neurologic disorder. It will begin by discussing the parallel historical development of pathobiological and psychosomatic/sociogenic diagnostic constructs arising from a common root in neurasthenia, which has resulted in the collective understandings of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and functional neurologic disorder (FND), respectively. We will also review the case definition criteria for FND and the distinguishing clinical and neuroimaging findings in FND vs. long COVID. We conclude that considering long COVID as FND is inappropriate based on differentiating pathophysiologic mechanisms and distinguishing clinical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1908–1909, Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863–1944), best remembered for The Scream (1893), spent eight months under Daniel Jacobson's care in a private nerve clinic in Copenhagen. Munch was suffering from alcohol abuse, and his signs and symptoms included auditory hallucinations, persecutory delusions, paresthesias, paralyses, violent mood swings, depression, loss of control, fatigue, and the loss of his basic ability to take care of himself. He was treated with rest, a fortifying diet, massages, baths, fresh air, limited exercise, and nonconvulsive electrotherapy. After he had settled in, Jacobson allowed Munch to draw, paint, and engage in photography. Munch responded with a portrait of Jacobson and a small but intriguing sketch of himself at one of his electrotherapy sessions. In this article, we examine the circumstances that brought Munch to Jacobson's clinic and his therapies, with particular attention to electrotherapies. In so doing, we hope to provide a more complete picture of Munch's crisis in 1908, his nerve doctor, the rationales for medical electricity and other treatments he endured, and Scandinavian psychiatry at this moment in time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the early twentieth century, the widespread growth of coffee drinking in Sweden led for calls by health reformers, doctors and scientists to implement measures to curtail what they deemed "coffee abuse." Debates about the dangers of coffee took place in Swedish Parliament and trickled out into the popular press. It was not long before canny manufacturers saw an opportunity to capitalize upon this, introducing coffee substitutes onto the Swedish market. One of the most popular brands was the roasted wheat bran drink Postum. This article seeks to investigate the early marketing practices of Postum in Sweden and how the brand used advertisements to exploit the public's growing fears around coffee and put itself forward as a viable substitute that was essential for good health. Using a dataset of 200 advertisements published in Svenska Dagbladet between 1926 and 1940, it demonstrates how Postum skewed scientific/medical knowledge on caffeine to their advantage, urging consumers to buy Postum to protect themselves against neurasthenia, insomnia and digestive disorders. In doing so, Postum went far beyond its role as a drink, instead tapping into discourses of wellbeing, morality and productivity, which remain a central part of food marketing today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The flexibility of the heart is important for cardiovascular health. The heart rate variation (HRV) is a metric of heart flexibility. Muslims perform praying (Namaz) which has some significant effects on general health regularity. The study aimed to assess the impact of real Namaz on HRV. Materials and Methods: Eighty-two participants who performed Namaz daily were categorized into three groups, including more minor, more than, and equal to the normal cortisol level range based on salivary cortisol. The electrocardiography was recorded before, during (divided into standing, bowing, prostration, and sitting positions), and after a four-cycle Namaz around noon. The linear and non-linear features of HRV were extracted. Results: The two-way analysis of variance showed that the standard deviation (SD)1 and SD2 of the Poincare plots of all groups increased after Namaz (P<0.0001). During Namaz, the indexes of sympathetic tone decreased in the prostration and bowing compared to the sitting and standing positions (P<0.00001). The SD of the mean of the R peaks interval, SD1, and SD2 of the Poincare plot also increased in those comparisons (P<0.00001). In addition, the spectral entropy was decreased in the bowing and prostration compared with standing and sitting positions (P<0.001). Conclusion: Namaz significantly increased the performance of the cardiovascular system and decreased the effect of daily stress on it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective • The primary objective of this study was to investigate the current state of online recruitment intention among hospitals and identify its key influencing factors. This research aims to provide valuable insights that can guide the development of recruitment and employment strategies for hospital departments and student management. Methods • This study employed a cross-sectional survey approach involving 543 hospitals. Data collection utilized both convenient offline recruitment methods and online recruitment information platforms. A total of 543 questionnaires were distributed, resulting in the collection of 543 valid responses. The participating hospitals comprised 225 tertiary hospitals and 318 secondary hospitals. Additionally, the sample included 430 general hospitals, 113 psychiatric hospitals, dental hospitals, and 406 specialized hospitals. Geographically, 137 hospitals were located in urban counties or towns. Furthermore, 333 hospitals targeted undergraduate graduates, while 210 focused on graduate students. Results • The analysis of the data revealed several significant findings. Among the included hospitals in the sample, 19.71% expressed online recruitment intention for candidates with neurasthenia. Factors contributing to a higher online recruitment intention among hospitals included a preference for recruiting undergraduates (P = .011), the belief that online recruitment is suitable for clinical positions (P = .002), challenges in assessing candidates’ expertise online (P = .002), concerns about dishonesty in online recruitment (P = .028), and the perception that online recruitment requires less technical expertise for hospitals (P < .001). Conclusions • This study highlights the multifaceted nature of online recruitment intention within hospitals. The identified influential factors emphasize the need for customized strategies in recruitment and employment. Medical university recruitment and employment departments should adopt tailored measures that align with the unique dynamics of online recruitment to address these factors effectively. In this way, hospitals can enhance their recruitment processes and ensure the selection of candidates that meet their specific requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Phase IV placebo-controlled clinical trial was designed to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of the product Neurodoron (Kalium phosporicum comp., KPC) in patients with neurasthenia. This monocenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group clinical trial (registration number: DRKS00003261) was conducted in an outpatient German trial site. Women and men aged 18 and above were randomized to receive either KPC or placebo if they reported typical symptoms of neurasthenia and a severe psychiatric disorder could be excluded. The primary objectives were a reduction in characteristic symptoms of nervous exhaustion and perceived stress as well as improvement in general health status after 6 weeks of treatment. In total, 204 patients underwent screening, 78 were randomized in each treatment group, and 77 patients each received treatment (intention-to-treat (ITT) population = 154 patients). For none of the primary efficacy variables, an advantage in favor of KPC could be demonstrated in the pre-specified analysis (p-values between 0.505–0.773, Student's t-test). In a post-hoc analysis of intra-individual differences after 6 weeks treatment, a significant advantage of KPC vs. placebo was shown for characteristic symptoms of nervous exhaustion (irritability (p = 0.020); nervousness (p = 0.045), Student's t-test). Adverse event (AE) rates were similar between treatment groups, in both groups six AEs were assessed as causally related to treatment (severity mild or moderate). No AE resulted in discontinuation of treatment. Trial treatment was well tolerated with only a few and minor AEs reported, confirming the markedly good safety of KPC. A significant improvement of neurasthenia was seen for the total study population at the end of the treatment period. Superiority of KPC vs. placebo could not be demonstrated with the pre-specified analysis with regards to a sum score of 12 typical symptoms, perceived stress, or general health status. However, the explorative post-hoc analysis revealed that KPC is superior to placebo in the characteristic symptoms irritability and nervousness. KPC could therefore be a beneficial treatment option for symptomatic relief of neurasthenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: SARS-COV2 pandemic has generated deleterious psychological and social effects as reported in our survey IMPPACTS-SAC.20. Objective: To determine which domains of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ 9) have the biggest influence in the diagnosis of major depression, also, to identify subpopulations with high prevalence of this disease. Method: IMPPACTS-SAC.20 survey analysis. Unsupervised machine learning techniques were used to perform a factorial analysis and to create groups of similar cases according to their performance in PHQ 9. Results: 1221 participants that took the PHQ 9 questionnaire were included. Factorial analysis showed that two main dimensions (neurasthenia and negative self-perception) accounted for 67.2% of the questionnaire variance (KMO test 0.911; Bartlett p < 0.001). The combination of both dimensions in hierarchical analysis generated nine clusters. Groups 5, 4, 2 and 1 explained 93% of the major depression cases. Groups 5 and 4 presented high neurasthenia values, and groups 2 and 1 high negative self-perception. Groups 6, 7 and 8 combined, presented a prevalence of major depression of 0.6%. Conclusions: The implementation of machine learning techniques detected two dimensions within the PHQ 9 score, neurasthenia and negative self-perception. Subgroups with a high prevalence of major depression were found, whose main clinical characteristics were female sex, alcohol consumption, smoking and suicidal intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the complex, sometimes conflicting, influences of China's Communist movement on psychotherapy and mental illness. The study is centered around the diary of a Chinese woman who simultaneously received therapeutic treatment of neurasthenia while remolding her consciousness as part of the "thought reform" campaign at the Shanghai Police School. Additionally, the study situates this diary within the broader history of psychotherapy in Communist China with highlight on the eventful life of Jiayin Huang, China's leading psychotherapist who helped the neurasthenic patient before being forced out of the therapeutic profession. This contextualized case study produces several findings. It is found that psychotherapy and thought reform converged in several aspects, including their diagnostic and interventional functions. Meanwhile, psychotherapy and thought reform also faced irreconcilable theoretical and normative discrepancies that eventually led to the decline of psychotherapy. Finally, it is argued that China's Communist movement exerted seemingly paradoxical impact on the neurasthenic patient. On the one hand, it pathologized the patient's psychology on an ideological ground; on the other, it promised the possibility of spiritual salvation through dedication to the revolutionary cause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new term, autonomic imbalance (自律神經失調 or AI), which refers to a wide variety of physical and mental symptoms that are medically unexplained, has recently emerged in Taiwan. Many people compared this condition to neurasthenia, a now obsolete diagnosis. Whether neurasthenia and AI are medically the same or merely similar is a debate that is better left to clinicians; however, this article endeavours to explore the significance of the comparability in terms of socio-cultural theory of health. With Deleuze and Guattari's notion of minor literature as reference, the objectives of this paper are as follows: to address how and why neurasthenia and AI should be treated as 'minor diagnoses' and consequently expose the limitations of current clinical medicine; to provide and discuss reasons why AI can be seen as a reincarnated form of neurasthenia; and to further elaborate how this approach may elevate inquiries on the varieties of medically unexplained symptoms to highlight the bodies that suffer without a legitimate name. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundVarious psychological theories suggest that a supportive family environment protects the mental health of young adults during stressful life events. However, evidence is limited regarding the protective role of family support during a major public health crisis.ObjectiveTo examine the role of family functioning on mental health among Chinese college students during first stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsBetween January–March 2020, 1,555 college students (44% female, on average 19 years old) from five Chinese universities participated. Participants rated their family functioning on the Family APGAR Index and their mental health on the Psychological Questionnaires for Emergent Events of Public Health, measuring depression, neurasthenia, fear, obsessive-anxiety and hypochondriasis.ResultsBetter family functioning was associated with having fewer psychological symptoms. In addition, we identified three mental health profiles related to the severity across the psychological symptoms: Low-level, medium-level and high-level symptom clusters. Latent profile analysis showed that as family function improved, students were, respectively, 16 to 24% more likely to be in the low-level symptom group, compared to being in the medium symptom group or the high-level symptom group.ConclusionThese results support the notion that family support may act as a psychological buffer for young adults during a large-scale public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction. The study is aimed at identifying emotional factors that determine the deficit of social perception in neurasthenia. Theoretical analysis. Insufficient knowledge of the phenomenology of neurasthenia and the difficulties of its differential diagnosis at the stage of pathological personality development is shown. The lack of targeted assistance to patients and their objectively rapid disability is emphasized. The hypothesis is formulated that patients with neurasthenia have a pronounced violation of social perception, determined by social anhedonia. Empirical analysis. In the group of patients with neurasthenia, in comparison with healthy subjects, there are pronounced difficulties in recognizing emotions by verbal and nonverbal manifestations, finding the necessary tone of communication and weakness of analytical abilities that allow to anticipate the dynamics of social situations. Factor analysis has shown the decisive role of emotional determinants in the development of the studied disorders – a high level of social anhedonia and associated personal, reactive anxiety and depression. Conclusion. Emotional factors form a pronounced social anhedonia that determines the formation of social perception deficit. A weak focus on the details of social situations, a tendency to attribute one’s own experiences to others determine the low level of effectiveness of social interaction, gradual withdrawal from contacts and complete social disintegration.

The article focuses on teenage neurasthenia and masculine rejuvenation in 1980s suburbia. It mentions Savage Steve Holland's 1985 oddball teen comedy Better Off Dead, where the protagonist, played by John Cusack in one of his first roles, verbalizes the crux of his character's motivation. It also mentions "Better Off Dead" and a slew of other 1980s teen comedies offer a critical lens for examining how and when adolescents and teenagers of the decade first consumed settler colonial concepts.

In the late-nineteenth century, Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) presented medical lectures designated 'For Men Only'. This article argues that YMCA lectures about sexual health relied on the discourse of neurasthenia to address sexual health and morality in medical terms. By demonstrating that sexual licentiousness could be both a cause and consequence of this common nervous disease, lecturers at the YMCA invited young men to understand themselves as victims of circumstance, corrupted by modern society. While this period in YMCA history is often considered part of the social hygiene movement of the early twentieth century, this article shows that the efforts of health reform in the 1880s and 1890s mobilised an approach unique to Gilded-Age America, one which served the to bolster the legitimacy of physicians and to attract men into YMCA Halls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of psychiatric illness among the hearing impaired does not vary from the general population. This case series highlights two different presentations of psychiatric illness in speech and hearing-impaired patients. The first case describes a patient that was diagnosed to have unspecified nonorganic psychosis after a detailed assessment and observation. The second case describes the challenges in diagnosing depression versus organicity. Difficulties in communication act as a barrier to psychiatric assessment, and there are no clear guidelines for the same. Both of these cases summarize the challenges faced in assessment, mental status examination, the lack of knowledge of linguistics hindering assessment, and the paucity of literature on psychiatric problems in speech and hearing impaired, especially in India. We found that these may be overcome by consistent ward observation, assessment of psychomotor activity, affect, functional analysis of aggression, and course and duration of the presenting illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literary exposition of abulia in Pío Baroja's early novels, especially La lucha por la vida trilogy, illuminates the ways in which diagnostic language from psychopathology was adapted, assimilated, and disseminated through the trajectories of fictional characters who suffer from a loss of volition. This article analyzes cultural narratives about abulia in Baroja's early fiction, demonstrating that they constitute a resonant pathological metaphor during a period in Spain's history defined by national introspection and regenerationist debates. By tracing metaphorical explanations for social, political, and economic circumstances conveyed through the literary appropriation of medical terminology, this study explores comparisons between abulia and the gendered and class-based associations of neurasthenia at the turn of the twentieth century. Although the assumed causes of each condition are different, this process of transposition between medicine and metaphor anticipates the contemporary social, cultural, and ideological shaping of concepts such as stress and burnout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the eighteenth century, masturbation was extended from the moral to the medical sphere and conceptualized as being the cause of various deteriorative physical illnesses. In the nineteenth century, psychiatrists accepted that difficult to control masturbation was a feature of many mental disorders. They also believed that masturbation could play a casual role in a specific type of insanity with a distinctive natural history. In 1962, E.H. Hare published an article on the concept of masturbatory insanity that became an important explication of the masturbation and mental illness relationship in the history of psychiatry. Historical research published subsequent to Hare's article suggests several updates to his analysis. Hare did not note that the masturbation and mental illness relationship was promoted to the general public by quacks peddling quick cures. Hare emphasized psychiatrists' condemnatory language only, neglecting the aspiration of psychiatrists to treat disorders caused by excessive masturbation, not punish the sin of masturbation. Hare recognized the importance of hebephrenia and neurasthenia to this history but attributed the decline of masturbation related mental illness in part to the rejection of an irrational, unscientific hypotheses about masturbation's causal role. As an alternative, we suggest that before the causal role of masturbation was widely abandoned, the concepts of hebephrenia and neurasthenia gained a competitive advantage and became primary diagnoses for cases that once would have been conceptualized as masturbatory insanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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ABSTRACT Objective: To observe the clinical effect of Fu Zheng Yang Xin Decoction in treating anxiety insomnia with deficiency of both heart and spleen, and to explore the possibility mechanism of Fu Zheng Yang Xin Decoction to treat anxiety insomnia with defi- ciency of both heart and spleen. Methods: Among the patients in the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) emotional diseases clinic, 50 patients with anxiety insomnia due to deficiency of both heart and spleen were selected, and divided them into observation group and control group by random number table method, 25 cases in each group. The control group was given estazolam tablets, 1 mg, 1 time/d, the observation group was given Fu Zheng Yang Xin Decoction on the basis of the control, 2 times/d, in a total of 14 days. Before and after the treatment, WBC, IL-6, IgA expression level, quality of life score (SF-36), the score by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) score, TCM syndrome score, and total efficiency of the two groups of patients were compared. Results: Post-treatment, compared within the group, the expression levels of WBC, IL-6 and IgA in the two groups were all decreased (P<0.05), and the PSQI and SAS scores of the two groups were decreased compared with those pretherapy (P<0.05). The SF-36 score was higher than before (P<0.05). Compared with the control group, the WBC, IL-6 and IgA of the observation group decreased more significantly than the control group (P<0.05), and the SF-36 increased more obviously than the control group (P<0.05), the PSQI score and SAS score decreased more significantly (P<0.05), and the total effective rate was higher (P<0.05). Conclusion: Fuzheng Yangxin Decoction can improve sleep quality, clinical symptoms and quality of life in patients with anxiety insomnia due to deficiency of both the heart and spleen. Compared with estazolam alone, the effect is better. It may be related to that Fuzheng Yangxin Decoction can reduce the levels of WBC, IL-6 and IgA in patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil War combat trauma remains a subject of interest to scholars studying the social and psychological changes that the war wrought upon American society. The focus has largely been on the South, but if we look northwards we find that combat trauma was too often masked by victory. But soldiers cannot singlehandedly delineate the contours of the emotional landscape of the wartime North. By locating combat trauma within the emotional nexus of non-combatant communities during and after the war, we can better understand the long-term effects of the Civil War on the development of America as a nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article focuses on Texas Adventures of Elliott Roosevelt and Christianity, played a prominent role in the decision. It mentions child mortality rates during the late nineteenth century were in sharp decline and nevertheless gravely concerned about their children's physical and mental well-being. It also mentions affliction of the privileged, neurasthenia was perceived as the negative manifestation of an active, competitive person being confronted by the complexities.

Copyright of Er(r)go: Teoria, Literatura, Kultura is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Slaskiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: In the 18th and 19th centuries, in Europe and the United States, masturbation was seen not only as a deviant form of sexual activity but also as a cause of nervous diseases. Masturbation was originally thought to cause insanity, but with the introduction of George Miller Beard's concept of neurasthenia, it came to be considered a form of nervous exhaustion. In the current article, we analyzed the almost forgotten medical report of a "sexual neurasthenic," written by the famous Russian writer and physician Anton Chekhov (1860-1904). This report gives us detailed information about the treatment of a patient allegedly experiencing the effects of masturbation, and thus reflects the medical discourse on masturbation in Russia in the early 1880s. It shows that although the international debate on the causes of neurasthenia had just begun, the concept of neurasthenia toward masturbation had already been put into practice at the Moscow University Clinic in 1883. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the origins and formation of medical and social discourses on neurosis in colonial Korea. With the introduction of Western medicine after the Opening of Korea in 1876, neurasthenia and hysteria began to be understood as neurotic diseases, and their importance was further highlighted during the colonial period of 1910–45. The article also addresses the role of neuropsychiatry in forming discourses on neurosis. In medical communities during the colonial period, the main source of these discourses gradually shifted from internal medicine to neuropsychiatry. In particular, Korean neuropsychiatrists distinguished between neurosis and psychosis as a way to reinforce their authority. Neuropsychiatrists tried to explain the temperamental and environmental factors of neurosis from a psychoanalytic standpoint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the role of Taiwanese psychiatrists in turning neurasthenia into a culture-specific disease in the late twentieth century. It first delineates the shift in both explanatory models of psychoneuroses and patient population in post-World War II Taiwan. Neurasthenia became a focus of international attention in the 1970s and 1980s with the advance of cultural psychiatry, and, as China was closed to the outside world, Taiwanese psychiatrists were influential in framing the cultural meaning of neurasthenia. With the rise of post-socialist China, Taiwan lost its status as a key laboratory of Chinese studies. This paper argues that the history of neurasthenia during the period was closely associated with the professional development and national identity of Taiwanese psychiatrists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I explore Nietzsche's account of the origins of the ascetic ideal in his Genealogy of Morality (GM). I offer a reading of his claim that this ideal springs from an instinctive response to the sicknesses he describes as "physiological inhibition and exhaustion" (GM III:13), arguing that these sicknesses are primarily nervous conditions found among the priestly class who come up with the ascetic ideal, and periodically among "large masses of people" (GM III:17). The historical frequency of the latter outbreaks accounts for the popularity of the ideal. But the origin story is very much about the ascetic priest, and it is a story Nietzsche tells in bits and pieces over the course of the Genealogy. This article integrates these bits and pieces into one cohesive account. Finally, I consider how the priest's more innocent ascetic lifestyle suggestions respond to the twin conditions of inhibition and exhaustion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers the first case study of Phospho-Energon - an early twentieth-century Swedish patent medicine believed to cure nervousness. Using a large dataset of newspaper advertisements, it explores how the product was presented through scientific and medical language, which drew upon a range of visual and verbal rhetoric to convince consumers of its benefits. It finds that pseudoscientific discourse focusing on self-help was regularly used to sell Phospho-Energon, with consumers warned that their nerves were "not allowed to fail" and required "protection" in order to remain healthy. Furthermore, the "science" supporting this discourse gradually shifted over time as neurosis replaced neurasthenia as a diagnostic category and the concept of spring lethargy became popularised. Overall, this study argues that Phospho-Energon stands as an important example of how partial scientific/medical claims can be used as a rhetorical device to sell products to consumers looking for a quick-fix cure for their perceived mental health conditions., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press.)

The article focuses on two different ways of constructing and understanding neurasthenia: one in the context of Russian medicine in the late-nineteenth to early-twentieth centuries, and the other in Soviet medicine after the communist revolution in 1917. The author examines the assumptions about human nature made in these two contexts and how they were bound to connect to the existing political context and agenda. The author explores how human nature was understood by the Russian and Soviet doctors at that time, and consequentially, their views on the harmful causes that led a healthy person to neurasthenia. Through the lens of the changing shifts in understanding neurasthenia, the author analyses the transformation that occurred in understanding human nature in general in the 1920–30s which led to the idea of the creation of the New Soviet Man, and also demonstrates the difference between the 'former' man and the 'new' man. The development of neurasthenia as a culturally bound construct reveals how medicine and politics are intertwined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time recounts the fiction of the "author's" project-of-existence to become an artist. 2. The world of medicine is the area in which the fragility of man is expressed as being-referred-to-death. 3. The deceptive feeling of the power of good health intoxicates medicine, physicians, patients, relatives, treatments -- irreverent depreciation toward the perishable. 4. The medical treatment of the agony of the "author's" grandmother shows the central elements of the doctor-patient relationship in medicine at the beginning of the 20th century: cognitive, affective, operational, ethical, and social. 5. The "author" of the novel is not Marcel Proust and, although it is a fiction, it encourages today's medical world to reflect on its fundamental bioethical foundations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1895, the crime-writing duo of L. T. Meade and Clifford Halifax, MD, published 'A Doctor's Dilemma' in The Strand Magazine. In it, the young physician Arthur Feveral describes a recent influenza outbreak which has left an 'extraordinary sequel... My health is gone—my nerve has deserted me'. Influenza plays a central role in this fiction, but Feveral's story is simply one of many – documentary and fictionalized – that populate the pages of late nineteenth-century British periodicals. The 'Russian' influenza pandemic of 1889–1894 was the last great European outbreak of the nineteenth century, leaving in its wake such widely discussed neurological effects (neurasthenia, psychosis, and melancholy) that they earned their own nosography: 'influenza nervosa'. This paper examines the pandemic's enduring cultural and biosocial impact through the framework of sequelae – chronic conditions arising in the aftermath of acute illness. Drawing on medical case histories, criminal reports, illness narratives, and works of fiction, it explores how the Victorians taxonomized and theorized such long-term effects of infectious disease. First, sequelae became a category separate from 'complications', vital to broader preoccupations with prolonged illness, uncertainty, and moral and bodily weakness and degeneracy, and the Victorians scaffolded around it notions of vigour and debility, difference, predisposition, and heredity. Second, they domesticated and repurposed colonial and tropical theories of hygiene as explanatory frameworks. Through close readings of 'long influenza' in the clinic and in fiction, this paper also frames the kinds of narratives which gained especial purchase, and the sufferers deemed both susceptible and sympathetic. Finally, it argues that the acute phase of infectious anxiety gave way to a longue durée of sequelae, and that Victorian responses provide critical insights and warnings for our own era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that Margaret Abigail Cleaves's The Autobiography of a Neurasthene was part of a body of nineteenth‐century writing that attempted to reclaim and recover the voices of American women by chronicling their struggles with illnesses and cures and documenting their interactions with the medical profession. Cleaves's gynocentric counternarrative was a searing criticism of the prevalent medical model of her era that questioned its treatment of neurasthenic women and offered therapeutic alternatives such as electric, light and music therapy. By doing so, it positioned Cleaves as a significant force of change in understandings of women and their bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contributions of Australians on shell shock are absent from the literature. However, two Australians were pioneers in the treatment of shell shock: George Elton Mayo (1880–1949) and Dr Thomas Henry Reeve Mathewson (1881–1975). They used psychoanalytic approaches to treat psychiatric patients and introduced the psychoanalytic treatment of people who suffered from shell shock. Their 'talking cure' was highly successful and challenged the view that shell shock only occurred in men who were malingering and/or lacking in fortitude. Their work demonstrated that people experiencing mental illness could be treated in the community at a time when they were routinely treated as inpatients. It also exemplified the substantial benefits of combining science with clinical knowledge and skill in psychology and psychiatry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent art history, the “plastic” is a concept undervalued as a designation for sculpture, or, in perception, as a single sense associated with touch. “Plasticity,” as popularized by the neurosciences, is generally understood as an elastic adaptability that evades fixity for flexibility. Current continental philosophy has revisited plasticity for its explosive rather than regenerative capacity to receive and produce form; however, this rethinking has neglected the concept of the plastic in art. Using scholarly comedy to explore accidents of resemblance (pseudomorphisms) and acausal coincidences (synchronicities) among artist-writer Piet Mondrian’s “plasticism,” art historian Aby Warburg’s “plastic art,” and artist-humorist Gelett Burgess’ plastic figure called “goop,” this essay generates insights on the concept of the plastic in art history, artist writings and art practice.

This article endeavours to understand the strenuous circumstances which caused neurasthenia and nervous debility in Canadian nursing sisters during the First World War. By examining the treatment they received for their condition at the Canadian Red Cross X Special Hospital and at Northwood Hospital for Sick Sisters in Buxton, this article also explores how Canadian medical authorities handled the nurses' treatment and momentarily challenged previous conceptions concerning mental illness in women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]