The Standard for Insanity :: Barker Regeneration Essays

The Standard for Insanity Since Pat Barkers Regeneration is nail down in a mental hospital, it seems fitting that questions about mental complaint and the definition of sanity should be raised. At the very start of the book, Rivers and Bryce ar converseing the case of Siegfreid Sassoon, a dissenting officer of the British army. As they discuss his diagnosis of neurasthenia, Barker is laying the groundwork for virtuoso of Regenerations many themes no one is completely qualified to judge the sane from the insane, for insanity finds its flair into us all. The ambiguity surrounding the definition and treatment of neurasthenia offers just a glimpse into the ever-changing and highly subjective world of mental evaluation.The autobiography of neurasthenia traces back before World War I to a scientist by the name of George A. byssus. Beard coined the actual term neurasthenia which means nerve impuissance (Marlowe). Neurasthenia was attributed rather vaguely to the stress of everyday li fe, or, for soldiers, the stress of the trenches. Many excessively felt it was a disease primarily of the upper class, which means it would dedicate more often to officers in the army than regular men. Andrew Scott Myrtle, who wrote on the hardiness of neurasthenia, believed like many medical professionals of the era that it is not the machine workers, the pulverization workers, who suffer but the inventors of the machines (Gijswijt-Hofstra 145). Not only did neurasthenia come from the many stresses of quotidian life, but it also had a myriad of symptoms. Every article on neurasthenia offered a different set of acceptable symptoms, the most common organism sleeplessness, headaches, and fatigue (Marlowe). Cures for neurasthenia were as varied as its symptoms. When working with one patient, Beard promptly zapped the young doctor with a faradic current from head to toe (Martensen 1243). Electric shock was mute being used during World War I, as evidenced by doctors like Lewis Yeal land, but other cures such as bed rest, sea-salts, and big-ticket(prenominal) cruises were also circulating (Gijswijt-Hofstra 145).The sense of ambiguity that surrounded neurasthenia had a self-aggrandising effect on societys views of neurasthenic patients. Although World War I was one of the first instances where people recognized that mental disorder or disease might be responsible for actions that were otherwise characterized as cowardly, there remained a strong sense that diseases like neurasthenia were ultimately the result of a derelict will. Robert Martensen describes neurasthenia as giving people a socially legitimate account statement of their inability to perform their expected roles (1243).