The Vicissitudes of Neurasthenia in Chinese Societies: Where Will It Go From the ICD-10?

Abstract

This essay begins with the position that the controversy between Chinese and Western researchers over the nosological status of neurasthenia arises logically from their discrepant epistemological theories of disease. Next, it traces Chinese psychiatrists' continued effort to reorganize neurasthenia in a tradition that not only conforms substantively to Western cultural assumptions but also results in its transformation into the pro fessional discourse of "depressive neurosis. " Evidence is then gathered to show that the ICD-10 construal of neurasthenia as a chronic fatigue disorder misrepresents the inherently variegated illness experience of Chinese neurasthenic patients and may, ironically, commit a category fallacy. A plea for considering illness experi ence in psychiatric taxonomies ends the paper.