Abstract :
“Today s civilization … is full of paradoxes.” With these words an Iranian women s magazine characterized Iran s state of affairs in 1928. Starting with the Constitutional Revolution (1905 and 1911), and at a faster pace during Reza Shah Pahlavi s rule (1921-41), social reforms, cultural change, and techno-scientific progress were re-forming Iran. The sun appeared to be rising again over the country, awakening it from an almost millenarian slumber . However, light was accompanied by shadows. Due to a decidedly more rapid pace, as opposed to the leisurely stroll of traditional life, the modern age was feared to exert unprecedented pressures on the individual. Modernist authors – journalists, scientific authors, and writers – waxed on the incredible velocity of cars, trains, and planes, but concluded that “the world … need(s) tranquility, welfare, and comfort – not agitation and hardship!” All too easily, speed could become, not only metaphorically, but literally, maddening. In the late 1930s, one author identified “speed and noise” as “the particular features of today s civilization”, directly causing a surge in mental disease and crime. Two decades later, a leading Iranian psychiatrist warned that “mental troubles are on the rise due to the rapid progress of the new civilization and people s lack of preparation to deal with it.”
