Neurasthenia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: the Role of Culture in the Making of a Diagnosis

Chronic fatigue syndrome is an increasingly popular diagnosis consisting of multiple psychiatric and somatic symptoms. It bears a striking resemblance to the nineteenth-century diagnosis of neurasthenia. Both disorders arose during periods characterized by a preoccupation with commerce and material success and major changes in the role of women. They illustrate the role of culture in the development of a new diagnosis that emphasizes a "medical" rather than "psychiatric" etiology. The authors argue that chronic fatigue syndrome will meet the same fate as neurasthenia--a decline in social value as it is demonstrated that the majority of its sufferers are experiencing primary psychiatric disorders or psychophysiological reactions and that the disorder is often a culturally sanctioned form of illness behavior.