I am a father, entrepreneur, technologist and aspiring woodsman.

My wife Ksenia and I live in the woods of Northwest Connecticut with our four boys and one baby girl run around outside. We also have 2 dogs, (old man) Happy and (puppy) Pheonix. I have a lumber mill and all the kids love using the tractor.

August 29, 2025 4:25 am

psychasthenia

William James' The Energies of Men has added a new lens through which to evaluate people's behavior.

The gist of it is that the vitality and effort we use in day-to-day life is far below our potential and we have Latent or reserve energy, which are hidden stores of power that remain untapped under normal conditions but can be released in moments of crisis, inspiration, or extraordinary effort.

A phenomenon of “second wind”.

Ok great, but what's really interesting is that he splits our energies, plural, into 4 categories:

  • Physical energy: Bodily stamina and endurance that can be pushed far beyond initial fatigue.
  • Intellectual/mental energy: Powers of reasoning, focus, and creativity that often lie dormant.
  • Moral energy: Strength of will to resist temptation, overcome fear, or persist in difficult tasks.
  • Spiritual energy: Higher states of devotion, faith, or transcendence that reorganize and elevate the whole personality.

Our current vernactular is so poor when talking about the fatigue states of any of these types of energies. Our best terms are things like "burn-out" or "doomscrolling" or "misinformation". (As opposed to a dissociated state.)

They then had a term psychasthema – term coined by Pierre Janet – entailing low psychological tension and an impotence of adaptation to reality.

Which immediately made me think of doomscrolling and QAnon.

Previously: The Solemn Silence of Written Words