A historical disorder: Neurasthenia and the testimony of lives in Latvia

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Neurasthenia was the most common of all medical diagnoses in Latvia and, indeed, throughout the Soviet Union and the other successor states. There is, of course, a long tradition—which stems from the military psychiatry of the First World War—of diagnosing individuals as neurasthenic and thereby translating political violence into psychological weakness. Not surprisingly, therefore, my focus on neurasthenia unwittingly unravelled painful and accusatory memories of political repression. Thus my project was prised apart by my informants who insisted that medical narratives must encompass their lived experience and with it the social history of Soviet Latvia. Neurasthenia in Latvia is an example of failed medical knowledge which reflects continued political resistance despite 50 years of Soviet rule in the Baltic states.