The Standard for Insanity :: Barker Regeneration Essays

The Standard for Insanity Since Pat Barkers Regeneration is set in a mental hospital, it seems alteration that questions about mental disease and the definition of sanity should be raised. At the very start of the book, Rivers and Bryce are discussing 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 nonpareil of Regenerations many themes no one is completely qualified to judge the sane from the insane, for frenzy finds its way 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 chronicle of neurasthenia traces back before World War I to a scientist by the name of George A. Beard. Beard coined the actual term neurasthenia which means nerve weakness (Marlowe). Neurasthenia was attributed sort of vaguely to the stress of everyday life, or, for soldi ers, the stress of the trenches. Many also felt it was a disease primarily of the upper class, which means it would apply more frequently to officers in the army than regular men. Andrew Scott Myrtle, who wrote on the validity of neurasthenia, believed like many medical professionals of the era that it is not the machine workers, the factory workers, who suffer but the inventors of the machines (Gijswijt-Hofstra 145). non only did neurasthenia come from the many stresses of daily life, but it also had a myriad of symptoms. Every article on neurasthenia offered a different set of agreeable symptoms, the most common being 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 still being used during World War I, as evidenced by doctors like Lewis Yealland, but other cures such as come re st, sea-salts, and expensive cruises were also circulating (Gijswijt-Hofstra 145).The sense of ambiguity that surrounded neurasthenia had a large 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 self-coloured sense that diseases like neurasthenia were ultimately the result of a weak will. Robert Martensen describes neurasthenia as giving people a socially legitimate explanation of their inability to bring to pass their expected roles (1243).