Category: Vitalist Theories

• The "Electric" Brain Drain

  This theory claimed that new electric infrastructure in modern cities—especially overhead wiring, dynamos, lighting grids, and later power lines—disturbed the body’s nervous economy and caused a leaking or depletion of vital fluids, force, or nerve energy. It did not always use the exact vocabulary of modern electricity exposure debates; instead, it drew on older ideas about vitality, neurasthenia, nervous exhaustion, and the body’s susceptibility to invisible forces. In the strongest versions, electrified urban life did not merely overstimulate the nerves but literally drained life from the body.