ABSTRACT
In a 1932 letter to H. Blüher, Sigmund Freud speaks of “this disjointed age.” Today as well, we often still speak of an illness of the age, of an illness of the Zeitgeist. Could it be that this illness of the age is identical to that with which all psychotherapy is concerned, that is, with neurosis? Could it be that the age has fallen neurotically ill? There is in fact a book-the author is F. C. Weinke-that carries the title: Der nervöse Zustand, das Siechthum unserer Zeit (The Nervous Condition, the Infirmity of our Time). The book appeared in Vienna, published by J. G. Heubner in ’53-not 1953, but 1853. Infirmity, “Siechtum” in the original German, was still written with an “h.” We see that the modernity of the neurosis is not so new.
