Abstract
The text deals with some aspects of the history of neurasthenia and the advent of stress, including its relations with the imaginary of nervous diseases, between the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. The main objective is to understand the main differences between those two pathologies, as well as the controversies triggered by them between Brazilian and foreign scientists. The central hypothesis that runs throughout the text, the result of broader research, is that diseases not only have a history that reveals the ways of conceiving the weaknesses and strengths of the body, but also indicate ambitions linked to productivity in the field work and social progress.
Keywords
neurasthenia; stress; illness; health; medicine