Goering’s Articles Named a “Highlight of the Decade”

Laura Goering, Professor of Russian, had her 2003 article “‘Russian Nervousness’: Neurasthenia and National Identity in Nineteenth-Century Russia” recently named one of the “highlights of the decade” by the journal Medical History. The article delves into the idea that although Russian popular understanding of neurasthenia bears little resemblance to the American version, both function similarly as cultural metaphors. In her article, Goering then explores the surrounding medical literature to discover an interaction between the way the disease was described by the medical community and the ways in which it surfaced in the popular culture. Goering says the goal of her piece was to draw on her background in Russian literary and cultural studies to provide a kind of “thick description” of the phenomenon, at the same time underscoring the need for medical practitioners and historians alike to be ever mindful of the powerful role played by culture. The complete 24 articles selected are available to the public on the Cambridge Journals Online.