Epidemics of speed-induced sickness mark phases of societal acceleration

Evidence

If we view the emergence of a new medical-pathological discourse of acceleration or the widespread diagnosis of a new speed-induced kind of sickness as the most unambiguous symptom of a phase of comprehensive acceleration, as Joachim Radkau suggests, then the flood of talk about “neurasthenia” that followed the introduction of this diagnostic category by George M. Beard in 1881 (and is echoed in Adams’s text) also bears witness to the significance of the changes occurring around 1900.41 It is this that leads Radkau to name the first decade of the twentieth century the “age of nervousness” (Nervosität). If one uses this kind of indicator, then it turns out that there are strong signs of a new, recent phase of acceleration in the transition from the twentieth to the twenty-first century: from “hurry sickness” and “yuppie flu” to the recently ubiquitous attention deficit disorder in children and youth and on to clinical depression as a reaction to the speed demands of a globalized society, the diagnoses of speed-induced sicknesses are proliferating at present. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 177

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the noise/silence reading (One Square Inch of Silence): both treat nervous-system diagnoses and stress as barometers of environmental change. — connects to: Social change below the multigenerational threshold is perceived as societal acceleration — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 32; Transitional eras between dying and emerging systems breed pathological symptoms; Demographic transitions between social orders produce cultural chaos and danger — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 43
• DEFINE: Introduces ‘neurasthenia’ (Beard, 1881) as a historical diagnostic category for speed-induced sickness.

Broader Connections

• Transitional eras between dying and emerging systems breed pathological symptoms #exemplifies (0.80)
• Demographic transitions between social orders produce cultural chaos and danger #exemplifies (0.78) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 43
• Social change below the multigenerational threshold is perceived as societal acceleration #corroborates (0.75) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 32