Abstract
In Part II of this volume, Matt Reed and Elizabeth Williams analyzed certain new constructions of the self in the fin de siècle, constructions in large part framed by middle-class professionals in the rapidly developing field of psychiatry. The concept of neurasthenia, broadly applied to seemingly inexplicable behaviors, suggests the period’s contorted relationship between modern medicine and traditional authorities, especially in longstanding institutions like the Roman Catholic Church, whose belief systems were often in conflict with modern science. The body, everyone’s most precious property, had become a contested site as scientists challenged pervasive notions of human reason and individual will, which defensive bastions of social, political, and cultural power attempted to maintain.KeywordsSexual PrejudiceSecret SocietyAssociational LifeEsoteric KnowledgeTripartite SchemeThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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