Medical Theories of Exhaustion: A Historical Analysis. (360G-Wellcome-102483_Z_13_Z)

This workshop analyses changing medical conceptions of exhaustion. Exhaustion features as a core symptom in various other diagnoses, such as burn-out, CFS, depression, neurasthenia and melancholia. Yet the arguments that shape both the scholarly and the popular image of exhaustion, and the narratives that medical and other writers produce to explain interior processes and the relation between the individual's energy reserves and society, fluctuate historically. They can provide valuable insights into medical (and other) paradigm changes. Exhaustion can be understood as a subjective physical, psychological and spiritual experience, but also as a broader cultural occurrence, which may involve phenomena such as political and philosophical disenchantment, anxieties about sustainability and economic pessimism. Physically, exhaustion manifests itself as chronic fatigue, whilst on a psychological level, we could describe it as weariness, disillusionment, hopelessness, lassitude, and lack of m otivation. Exhaustion, however, is rarely encountered on its own in medical accounts as it frequently overlaps with other diagnostic entities. This workshop explores historical transformations of medical theories of exhaustion by investigating the functions exhaustion fulfills as a core symptom in various other diagnoses, including burn-out, CFS, depression, neurasthenia and melancholia.