Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. Western Origins of Neurasthenia 3. Weak Nerves in China 4. Western Psychiatry Engages Shenjing Shuairuo 5. Shenjing Shuairuo Survives into the Twenty-First Century 6. Ongoing Struggles with Nosology 7. Conclusion

About the Author

Donald McLawhorn is completing a psychiatry residency in the SUNY Upstate Medical University’s Department of Psychiatry. He has an MA in Sociology from the University of South Florida and a PhD in East Asian Languages and Cultures from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He earned his MD from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago. He has presented research on various aspects of cultural psychiatry at domestic and international conferences. His research focuses primarily on the relationship between diagnostic classification and symptom manifestation across cultures.