Fearful States: The Emergence of Modern Phobias

In 1892 Max Nordau concluded his controversial study Degeneration with an apocalyptic vision of the new century. If, as he proposed, “fatigue, nervous exhaustion, and the diseases and degeneration conditioned by them, make much greater progress” (540), “then certain phenomena which are perceived as exceptions or in an embryo condition would henceforth increase to a formidable extent and develop consistently; others which at present are only observed among the inmates of lunatic asylums, would pass into the daily habitual condition of whole classes of the population” (537). “Life,” he continues, “would then present somewhat of the following picture”: