The Surge in Nervous Diseases Created Interest in the Public

Though insanity would never be welcomed by either victims or their families, it was perhaps a comfortable notion to think that it primarily afflicted “civilized” people and nations. Nervous diseases did not affect “savages.” Furthermore, the upper, leisured class could sometimes ascribe their whims, phobias, and “nerves” to their sensitivity and developed intellect, even when the conditions bordered on insanity.

Wealthy women could be dainty, frail, and too refined to bear anything sordid or “common.” They could afford to be highly strung, indulging in hysteria, moodiness, nervousness, and hypochondria.

Men shied away from hysteria, but they could manifest both hypochondria and melancholia without losing respect. People who had these nervous disorders, or neurasthenia, as coined by Dr. George Brown (see last two posts) could go to spas, travel, or take rest cures that might include bed rest, massage, and hearty meals. Sometimes for men, treatment would be vigorous outdoor exercise.

Victorian Woman Fainting of Neurasthenia

Though all these conditions caused distress and should not be considered false or amusing in any degree, only the leisured, wealthier class could manage to indulge in them without societal disapproval. A delicate blue-blood who could eat only the daintiest food was acceptable; a factory girl would be expected to eat what she was given.

A wealthy man could afford to be melancholic and withdraw from business or social obligations, whereas a working man would incur only anger or exasperation for the same behavior.

Finally, the wealthy could manifest these somewhat fashionable nervous conditions without acquiring the label of insanity or suffering the trauma of  commitment to an asylum. Because they had the means to help themselves in gentler ways via the advice and services of specialists, they could perhaps cope better with their condition so that it did not become worse, the way it might for a person in poverty and with no ability to get help at the onset of the problem.

Massaging Arm in the Rest Cure, circa 1890