Soviet theatre in the fight against neurasthenia in the 1920s and 1930s - psychiatry in theatre.

Abstract

Neurasthenia was first defined by the renowned New York neurologist George Beard (1839–1883) in 1869. He described it as a lack of nerve force that developed due to the stress of modern society. Since neurasthenia had been perceived as a side-effect of a modernising America, Beard called it ‘the American disease’. However, it seemed to spread rapidly to Europe. In 1887, the Russian psychiatrist Pavel Kovalevsky (1849–1931) even proclaimed neurasthenia a ‘Russian disease’, given the large number of ‘neurasthenics’ in his country. After the Russian Revolution, in the 1920s, neurasthenia was considered one of the most widespread mental disorders among the ranks of the new political and executive elites. Soviet psychiatrists believed that the cause of the nervous exhaustion lay in the revolutionary sufferings of Bolsheviks during the civil war and in psychological stress during the post-war reconstruction of the country. The work-related emotional overstraining often led to suicide. In 1925, the suicide rate among Communist Party activists reached 12.5% of all deaths. Neurasthenia was also regarded as a common illness of intellectuals.