Female Hysteria Essay

The violence in Alfred Hitchcock’s film exposes underlying issues with gender. In addition to abuse of domestic violence and sexual assault, violence is posed as a measure to treat or deescalate hysteria. There is a tendency in Hitchcock pictures for people to use slapping and subdued in order to contain hysterical women. However, hysteria does not represent a legitimate disease inflicted upon these women, but an excuse to knock down women who do not conform to authority.

Hysteria was one of the class diseases of the 19th century…for centuries hysteria has been seen as characteristically female- the hysterical woman the embodiment of a perverse or hyper femininity…and in [the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s…physicians reported a high incidence of nervous disease and hysteria among women who felt overwhelmed by the burdens of frequent pregnancies, the demands of children, the daily exertions of housekeeping and family management (Smith-Rosenberg, 1972, 652, 653, 657).

Until the medical breakthroughs that we have made in the modern day, psychology as a science was not fully understood. Modern technology has given us a clearer idea of psychology, but in the past there was less known about the science. This alongside a predominantly male medical discourse led to a medical diagnosis in many women called hysteria. Female hysteria was a medical diagnosis given to specifically women as far back as the ancient Greek civilization. Hysteria started as a supernatural phenomena, but as medicine evolved it would be described as a mental disorder, (Tasca). Hysteria. in actuality, is an absurd and fabricated diagnosis that institutionalized and discriminated countless women. The way it makes a women feel, and the fact that it strips a woman of any sort of free will is a sickening display of blatant misogyny. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman perfectly displays not only the misogyny, but the torture a woman must face trapped under a hysteria diagnosis. Hysteria as a diagnoses fails to effectively treat many women, instead leading to the mistreatment and wrongful institutionalization of women.

Hysteria was the “go-to, catchall diagnosis” for all women, consisting of any “problem” including, but not limited to, nervousness, faintness, loss of appetite, (lack of) sexual desire, headaches, insomnia, muscle spasms, and trouble-making. For centuries, literature portrayed as submissive and obedient to men and oppressed by society, culture, and even men. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman presents readers with a story of a woman suffering from depression, possibly post-partum, but whose remedy is “rest cure,” a treatment invented by Silas Weir Mitchell for neurasthenia involving isolation and rest as a cure for hysteria in all its forms. The Yellow Wallpaper is a narrative concerning the gradual demise of the mental stability of an unnamed, newly married upper-middle class woman in late nineteenth century rural America. Gilman uses psychological terror to not only portray the narrator’s fall to insanity, but also to shed light on the rather unfortunate role of women in the institution of marriage. The narrator’s husband, John, is a physician who firmly expresses disbelief in his wife’s claims of depression. From the beginning of the story, the reader can tell immediately that the narrator has absolutely no voice. John assures her and others that nothing is wrong but “temporary nervous

In the late eighteenth century hysteria was large in women that which may have made them been perceived a little different in society. In Nellie Bly’s excerpt she says “…. greatly dampened by the look of distress on the faces of my companions. Poor women they had no hopes of a speedy recovery.”(190) This saying says the women had no idea what they were getting into. The were nervous about going to this so called “mad house” and nervousness can lead to hysteria as it is said in Laura Briggs article. “As a description, “nervousness” did historic labor, and accounted for the most various disease of body and mind.” Even though most of the patients inside the asylum were

“ Earth is the insane asylum of the universe” Albert Einstein What comes to mind when you hear “insane asylum?” Do such terms as lunatic, scary, haunted or even the crazy house come to mind? More than likely this is the terminology that most of us would use to describe our perception of insane asylums. However, those in history that had a heart’s desired to treat the mentally ill compassionately and humanely had a different viewpoint. Insane asylums were known for their horrendous treatment of the mentally ill, but the ultimate purpose in the reformation of insane asylums in the nineteenth century was to improve the treatment for the mentally ill by providing a humane and caring environment for

Women have been accused of being “hysterical’ for centuries. Hysteria is defined as “ a psychoneurotic disorder characterized by violent emotional outbreaks, disturbances of sensory and motor functions, and various abnormal effects due to autosuggestion.” Hysteria is not a condition that is specific to only females (Hysteria). Although it is more common among women, men can also become “hysterical” in their lifetime. This idea was proposed in the 1800s by a French neurologists named Jean- Martin Charcot. Charcot believed that hysteria was not a sexual disease that was only in women, he concluded that it was in fact an “inherited nervous disorder” that affected both sexes (Hysteria). Hysteria is a legitimate issue that exists today through

In the late 19th century, many women were diagnosed with insanity, dementia, and other mental disorders. Although a large portion of these diagnoses were accurate, many of the female patients were mishandled and given the wrong prescriptions. Some treatments included locking patients in an empty room and forcing them to take medicine that either had no effect, or exacerbated the situation. “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, demonstrates this corruption and goes into detail on how a female patient’s lack of power and control is detrimental to her mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing.

Jane is a victim of a nervous disorder of the brain called hysteria. She is aware that she suffers from a series of mental and physical disturbances. She says that she has a " temporary nervous depression: -- a slight hysterical tendency- what is one to do?"(2).

When the male doctors of the 1800s first introduced the idea of male hysteria, they made great concessions. The attitudes, actions, and personality traits associated with males during that time period were so vastly different from the present-day. They were thought to be the sole provider, protector, strong, and self-reliant - no displays of weakness or submissiveness were allowed. Contradictions between established physicians and neurologists debated in the medical world whether or not it existed.

This is where the term " hysteria" came from, which meant “a broad diagnosis, assigned to women who displayed too much emotion or demanded too much attention.” Which came about the “hysterical tendencies,” as a way of acting out. Gilman says “if a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?” (Gilman) As the man of the house, her husband John does not want a person to think that there is something wrong with his wife.

hysteria, I had various difficulties navigating through the text and analyzing Freud’s writing. However, there were parts that also gave me a really good understanding of the unconscious. In the beginning of the text, Freud explains to the reader how patients sometimes tend to have gaps in their memory due to their illness or they are simply frightened or ashamed to share what happened to them or what they have done. In these cases, paramnesia can occur causing the patients to confuse facts and fantasies. This passage really helped me to grasp how the mind works and how the information can be coherent or incoherent depending on the situation. In this writing, Freud gives a deep observation about how the unconscious works and how he gives treatment to his patients.

In her book Women's Madness, Misogyny or Mental Illness, Ussher notes that in the Victorian era, hysteria was diagnosed primarily in strong, outspoken women: in other words: women who transgressed the ideal of true womanhood and thus challenged patriarchy. This is

The clinical name for the condition was known as “hysterical paroxysm.” The first vibrator was invented be a British physician in the 1880s was a direct response to doctors who wanted help performing this procedure to reduce the time factor. (Jennifer Berman, 2005)

Joan Busfield’s article also inspired this dissertation’s research concerning the gender anxiety of nineteenth-century mental illness. Busfield argued there was not a clear difference between women and men being admitted to the asylums based on ground of insanity. I found this interesting considering there was a social anxiety that women were committed