Nerves at work: Mental health in the British Post Office in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Abstract

The late 19th century witnessed a growing concern about the rising incidence of nervous disorders. Sociologists explained this with reference to the impacts of urbanisation, industrialisation and modernity. Medical practitioners identified psychological and physiological explanations for nervous disorders, focussing on a constellation of symptoms that became known as neurasthenia. While many commentators considered neurasthenia a condition of the middle classes, there was growing evidence that nervous disorders affected a wide range of the social spectrum, including the working class. We explore the prevalence of nervous disorders in the late 19th-century, using the British Post Office as a case study. We identify the significance of nervous disorders as a cause of sickness absence and of retirement, taking note of occupation and gender as key variables. We examine the contrasting explanations offered by management and workers for the incidence of nervous disorders, pointing to the significance of specific labour practices on different groups of workers. We compare our findings with those in other industries in the 20th century and conclude that similar rates of nervous disorders occurred across time and in different kinds of occupations. We conclude by suggesting that different working conditions were a significant factor in explaining the incidence of nervous disorders and that this needs to be taken into account by historians alongside more traditional explanations of nervousness based on social change and the impact of modernity on the human psyche.