Neurosis and modernity : the age of nervousness in Sweden / by Petteri Pietikainen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pietikäinen, Petteri.

Series:

History of science and medicine library ; v. 2.

History of science and medicine library, 1872-0684 ; v. 2

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Neuroses--Sweden--History.

Neuroses.

Neurasthenia--Sweden--History.

Neurasthenia.

Cultural psychiatry--Sweden.

Cultural psychiatry.

National characteristics, Swedish--History.

National characteristics, Swedish.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (405 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In late nineteenth-century Sweden, paths to modernity created socio-cultural conditions conducive to the dissemination of the language of nerves. This book shows how neurosis became an extremely contagious diagnosis, and how our modern language of discontent, stress and malaise has a history that goes back to the birth of modern neuroses in the 1880's. Hysteria, neurasthenia, psychoneurosis and other neuroses spread from middle-class women to all segments of the Swedish population, and by the mid-1950's nobody was safe from the medico-cultural virus of neurosis. While offering the first historical analysis of the ways in which neuroses became a national malady in Sweden, this book illustrates and analyses general aspects of social and cultural history during the Age of Nervousness.

Contents:

Preliminary material / P. Pietikainen

Introduction - The age of nervousness / P. Pietikainen

Chapter One. On the Swedish path to modernity / P. Pietikainen

Chapter Two. How Swedes became nervous / P. Pietikainen

Chapter Three. Weak nerves, degeneration and racial hygiene: Health ideology in the age of nervousness / P. Pietikainen

Chapter Four. Masters of psychomedical reality: Neurosis and the medical profession / P. Pietikainen

Chapter Five. Femininity, sexuality and childhood: Sources of the nervous self / P. Pietikainen

Chapter Six. Remedies for nervousness / P. Pietikainen

Chapter Seven. The culture of complexes / P. Pietikainen

Chapter Eight. On the shattered nerves of Dr Lennmalm’s private patients / P. Pietikainen

Chapter Nine. Nervousness with tears: Patients at the ‘nerve clinic’ / P. Pietikainen

Chapter Ten. How to turn neurotics into productive citizens / P. Pietikainen

Conclusion - Neurosis as a contagious diagnosis / P. Pietikainen

Bibliography / P. Pietikainen

Index / P. Pietikainen.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [363]-381) and index.

ISBN:

1-281-93616-2

9786611936167

90-474-2124-8

OCLC:

646789959