"The Standard for Insanity" Since Pat Barker's Regeneration is set in a mental hospital, it seems appropriate to raise questions about mental illness and the definition of sanity. Early in the book, Rivers and Bryce discuss the case of Siegfreid Sassoon, a dissenting officer in the British Army. As they discuss his "neurasthenia" diagnosis, Barker is laying the groundwork for one of Regeneration's many themes: no one is fully qualified to judge the sane from the insane, because madness finds its way into all of us. The ambiguity surrounding the definition and treatment of neurasthenia offers only a glimpse into the ever-changing and highly subjective world of mental evaluation. The history of neurasthenia dates back before World War I to a scientist named George A. Beard. Beard coined the current term "neurasthenia" meaning weakness of the nerves (Marlowe). Neurasthenia was attributed rather loosely to the stress of daily life or, for soldiers, to the stress of the trenches. Many also thought that it was a disease that mainly affected the upper classes, meaning that it would affect army officers more often than ordinary men. Andrew Scott Myrtle, who wrote about the validity of neurasthenia, believed, like many medical professionals of the time, that "it is not the workers, the laborers, who suffer, but 'the inventors of the machines'" (Gijswijt-Hofstra 145). . Not only did neurasthenia result from the many stresses of daily life, but it also had myriad symptoms. Each article on neurasthenia offered a different set of acceptable symptoms, the most common being insomnia, headache, and fatigue (Marlowe). Treatments for neurasthenia were as varied as its symptoms. While working with a patient, Beard "promptly electrocuted the young doctor with a 'faradic current' from 'head to toe'" (Martensen 1243). During World War I, electroshock was still used, as evidenced by doctors such as Lewis Yealland, but other treatments such as bed rest, sea salts, and expensive cruises were also in circulation (Gijswijt-Hofstra 145). neurasthenia had a great effect on society's views of neurasthenic patients. Although World War I was one of the first instances in which people recognized that mental disorders or illnesses could be responsible for otherwise cowardly actions, there remained a strong sense that illnesses such as neurasthenia were ultimately the result of a weak will. Robert Martensen describes neurasthenia as giving people a “socially legitimate explanation for their inability to perform expected roles" (1243).