1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910826341703321

Autore

Killen Andreas

Titolo

Berlin electropolis [[electronic resource] ] : shock, nerves, and German modernity / / Andreas Killen

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2006

ISBN

1-282-75932-9

9786612759321

0-520-93163-7

1-59875-781-4

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (307 p.)

Collana

Weimar and now ; ; 38

Disciplina

362.196/8528/00943155

Soggetti

Neurasthenia - Social aspects - Germany - Berlin - History

Mental fatigue - Social aspects - Germany - Berlin - History

Electrotherapeutics - Germany - Berlin - History

Electrification - Germany - Berlin - History

Industrialization - Germany - Berlin - Psychological aspects

Social change - Germany - Berlin - Psychological aspects

Railroads - Employees - Mental health - Germany - Berlin

Telephone operators - Mental health - Germany - Berlin

Soldiers - Mental health - Germany - Berlin

Psychiatry - Germany - Berlin - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Berlin Electropolis -- 2. Electrotherapy and the Nervous Self in Nineteenth-Century Germany -- 3. Railway Accidents, Social Insurance, and the Pathogenesis of Mass Nervousness, 1889-1914 -- 4. Electrotherapy and the Nervous Self during Wartime -- 5. Psychiatrists, Telephone Operators, and Traumatic Neurosis, 1900-1926 -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Berlin Electropolis ties the German discourse on nervousness in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to Berlin's transformation into a capital of the second industrial revolution. Focusing on three key



groups-railway personnel, soldiers, and telephone operators-Andreas Killen traces the emergence in the 1880's and then later decline of the belief that modernity caused nervous illness. During this period, Killen explains, Berlin became arguably the most advanced metropolis in Europe. A host of changes, many associated with breakthroughs in technologies of transportation, communication, and leisure, combined to radically alter the shape and tempo of everyday life in Berlin. The resulting consciousness of accelerated social change and the shocks and afflictions that accompanied it found their consummate expression in the discourse about nervousness. Wonderfully researched and clearly written, this book offers a wealth of new insights into the nature of the modern metropolis, the psychological aftermath of World War I, and the operations of the German welfare state. Killen also explores cultural attitudes toward electricity, the evolution of psychiatric thought and practice, and the status of women workers in Germany's rapidly industrializing economy. Ultimately, he argues that the backlash against the welfare state that occurred during the late Weimar Republic brought about the final decoupling of modernity and nervous illness.