Je suis fatigué

The etymology of fatigue: "1660s, "that which causes weariness," from

French fatigue "weariness," from fatiguer "to tire" (15c.), from Latin fatigare "to weary, to tire out," originally "to cause to break down," from pre-Latin adjective *fati-agos "driving to the point of breakdown," https://www.etymonline.com/word/fatigue

When I started my studies a few years ago, I was talking to people with brain injuries at a local support group about the word " fatigue". People commented that it wasn't a word they used much before their brain injury. In everyday life, we talk about being tired, sometimes exhausted, but less often fatigued. One man explained how in his culture, older people would never admit to being tired, they would either say nothing or say they were ill. Admitting to tiredness was generally seen as a sign of weakness.

This conversation triggered several questions for me. Has our understanding of "fatigue" changed over time?  Does the concept of fatigue (as written about in health-related research) reflect a western  understanding? Are there cultural explanations or manifestations of fatigue?

After reading " Exhaustion, a history" by Anna Katherina Schaffner (there is a short summary of key ideas "Towards a cultural history of exhaustion") I was intrigued by how explanations of fatigue have changed over time; ranging from an excess of  sin, weakened nerves or an imbalance in body humours. I realise that these explanations are grounded in the knowledge, cultural norms and values of the time, so how are our beliefs about fatigue shaped by our western 21st century ideas?

Within fatigue management, fatigue is often explained as a resource issue. Therapists and research participants explained to me how they used the analogy of a battery to describe how to best manage their energy and reduce the impact of fatigue. But  there is an argument that this understanding reflects our industrialised western way of thinking. 

The only study I have found so far to address this issue is a qualitative study by Karasz and McKinley (2007). They interviewed 72 women in the US about a fatigue vignette and discovered differences in how European American women explained fatigue as compared to south Asian American women. Some of these differences were around causes of fatigue, concerns about fatigue and fatigue related behaviour, such as seeking help. 

I have only just started exploring cultural differences in how fatigue is explained, experienced and understood and I don't have any answers yet. But I am curious about whether we consider different cultural accounts of fatigue in our fatigue management intervention or are we ethnocentric in our approach to fatigue?

References.

Schaffner, AK ((2017) Exhaustion . Columbia University Press.

  

Karasz, A. and Mckinley, P. S. (2007) ‘Cultural Differences in Conceptual Models of Everyday Fatigue: A Vignette Study’, Journal of Health Psychology, 12(4), pp. 613–626. doi: 10.1177/1359105307078168.