Troubled by life : the experience of stress in twentieth-century Britain
In this thesis I explore how people conceptualised, explained and managed their experiences of everyday stress before the concept became ubiquitous. In doing so, I reveal some of the factors which contributed to that ultimate ubiquity. The existing historiography of stress comes mostly from a medical perspective and deals largely with post-traumatic stress. I address these limitations by specifically focusing on the everyday stress more commonly experienced by the wider population and by doing so from a more popular perspective. I focus on changes to everyday life at work and at home, which had a significant impact on the popularisation of stress, in the period from the First World War to the 1980s. Drawing on a range of sources including self-help books, diaries, oral history interviews and popular culture, I foreground continuities in the approach to treating stress and changes in ideas about causation. My analysis reveals a vocabulary of nerves and nervous disorders as precursors to stress, but also illustrates the mutability of the nerves/stress concept and how its very imprecision gave it utility. An examination of contemporary medical, sociological and governmental research demonstrates how the increasing
Kirby, Fiona Jillian
DA566 20th century
Troubled by life : the experience of stress in twentieth-century Britain. In this thesis I explore how people conceptualised, explained and managed their experiences of everyday stress before the concept became ubiquitous. In doing so, I reveal some of the factors which contributed to that ultimate ubiquity. The existing historiography of stress comes mostly from a medical perspective and deals largely with post-traumatic stress. I address these limitations by specifically focusing on the everyday stress more commonly experienced by the wider population and by doing so from a more popular perspective. I focus on changes to everyday life at work and at home, which had a significant impact on the popularisation of stress, in the period from the First World War to the 1980s. Drawing on a range of sources including self-help books, diaries, oral history interviews and popular culture, I foreground continuities in the approach to treating stress and changes in ideas about causation. My analysis reveals a vocabulary of nerves and nervous disorders as precursors to stress, but also illustrates the mutability of the nerves/stress concept and how its very imprecision gave it utility. An examination of contemporary medical, sociological and governmental research demonstrates how the increasing
troubled life experience stress twentieth_century britain explore people conceptualise explain manage experience everyday stress concept become ubiquitous reveal factor_contribute ultimate ubiquity exist_historiography stress come mostly medical perspective deal largely post traumatic stress address limitation specifically_focus everyday stress commonly experience wide population popular perspective focus change everyday_life work home significant_impact popularisation stress period first_world_war drawing range_source include self_help book diary oral_history_interview popular_culture foreground continuity treat stress change ideas causation analysis_reveals vocabulary nerve disorder precursor stress also_illustrate mutability stress concept give utility examination contemporary medical sociological governmental demonstrate increase