This thesis studies some of the most popular alternative treatments for neurasthenia in Japan in the period of 1890 to 1945, including breathing exercise, quiet-sitting, hypnotism-derived mental therapy and Morita therapy. Neurasthenia, with its supposed relation to modern civilization, was a widely used and preferred disease label in Japan. As the official Western medicine failed to provide satisfactory solutions to this obstinate and debilitating disease, a variety of alternative treatments were invented or reinvented and some of them became very popular. Concerning the popularity and effectiveness of these treatments, this thesis argues that they provided contemporary Japanese, who had been experiencing rapid and dramatic change to lifestyle, culture and society, with models by which they could perceive, conceive and strengthen their neurological, circulatory and psychological systems by their analogy to ki. Known as a nervous disorder, neurasthenia was also perceived and understood as a disorder of ki, with insufficiency, stagnation, obstruction and turbulence still thought to be the major faults. Through undergoing and practicing these treatments, Japanese neurasthenic patients could control and invigorate the flow of nervous currents, blood and ideas as they previously cultivated ki. This thesis also investigates these treatments in the context of Japanese nationalism. Their advocates often claimed that they were embedded in traditional Japanese culture and hence particularly effective for Japanese patients. Returning to traditional lifestyle and culture was regarded by them as a cure for neurasthenia, which they thought was a disease of `de-Japanization¿. Furthermore, they founded a large number of groups and organizations for the practice and promotion of these treatments, which were in many ways like traditional extended families and provided patients with a much-needed sense of security and belonging. These treatments were endowed with social and cultural significance, which was also crucial to their therapeutic effectiveness for neurasthenia. ]]>
...MoreDescription Defense date not indicated; cited by UMI in 2012. Cited in ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing. Proquest Document ID: 1442497091.
Book
Schuster, David G.;
(2011)
Neurasthenic Nation America's Search for Health, Happiness, and Comfort, 1869--1920
(/isis/citation/CBB001212361/)
Thesis
Doroshow, Deborah Blythe;
(2012)
Emotionally Disturbed Residential Treatment, Child Psychiatry, and the Creation of Normal Children in Mid-Twentieth Century America
(/isis/citation/CBB001567369/)
Book
David Scrimgeour;
(2015)
Proper People: Early Asylum Life in the Words of Those Who Were There
(/isis/citation/CBB325630550/)
Article
Annacarla Valeriano;
(2019)
Voci dalle cartelle. Alcune linee di ricerca dall’archivio storico del manicomio Sant’Antonio abate di Teramo
(/isis/citation/CBB521766391/)
Chapter
Osamu Nakamura;
(2016)
Patient Work and Family Care at Iwakura, Japan, C. 1799-1970
(/isis/citation/CBB402213161/)
Book
Berkenkotter, Carol;
(2008)
Patient Tales: Case Histories and the Uses of Narrative in Psychiatry
(/isis/citation/CBB001232238/)
Article
Laws, Jennifer;
(2010)
Crackpots and Basket-Cases: A History of Therapeutic Work and Occupation
(/isis/citation/CBB001035606/)
Article
Murray, Heather;
(2014)
“My Place Was Set At The Terrible Feast”: The Meanings of the “Anti-Psychiatry” Movement and Responses in the United States, 1970s--1990s
(/isis/citation/CBB001202132/)
Article
Zorzanelli, Rafaela Teixeira;
(2009)
A fadiga e seus transtornos: condições de possibilidade, ascensão e queda da neurastenia novecentista
(/isis/citation/CBB000932963/)
Article
Ricatti, Francesco;
(2008)
Histories of Madness: The Abject Perspective of Italian Women in Australia
(/isis/citation/CBB001212378/)
Article
Elisa Mandelli;
(2019)
Lo sguardo e la performance. Le relazioni tra medico, paziente psichiatrico e spettatore dal cinema medicale al museo multimediale
(/isis/citation/CBB446259905/)
Book
Coleborne, Catharine;
(2010)
Madness in the Family: Insanity and Institutions in the Australasian Colonial World, 1860--1914
(/isis/citation/CBB001031295/)
Article
Getz, Lynne M.;
(2009)
“A Strong Man of Large Human Sympathy”: Dr. Patrick L. Murphy and the Challenges of Nineteenth-Century Asylum Psychiatry in North Carolina
(/isis/citation/CBB001030783/)
Article
Wallis, Jennifer;
(2013)
The Bones of the Insane
(/isis/citation/CBB001320330/)
Article
Zorzanelli, Rafaela Teixeira;
(2010)
Neurastenia
(/isis/citation/CBB001420499/)
Article
Jabert, Alexander;
(2011)
Estratégias populares de identificação e tratamento da loucura na primeira metade do século XX: uma análise dos prontuários médicos do Sanatório Espírita de Uberaba
(/isis/citation/CBB001420511/)
Book
Greenberg, Gary;
(2013)
The Book of Woe: The DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry
(/isis/citation/CBB001422184/)
Article
Breathnach, Caoimhghín S.;
(2010)
Hallaran's Circulating Swing
(/isis/citation/CBB000933038/)
Article
Kragh, Jesper Vaczy;
(2010)
Malaria Fever Therapy for General Paralysis of the Insane in Denmark
(/isis/citation/CBB001232235/)
Article
Hock, Lisabeth;
(2011)
Women and Melancholy in Nineteenth-Century German Psychiatry
(/isis/citation/CBB001232203/)
Be the first to comment!