Sawbones Analysis A History Of Hysteria Summary

Firstly, let me explain to you what a hysteria is, it is uncontrollable emotion or excitement. You’re probably wondering why would this be exciting, well I am about to tell you. When nine and eleven-year-old girls sought to know their destiny they found the unfortunate answer by engaging with a West Indian woman named Tituba. To see their future the woman used an egg white in a glass of water and looked for telltale shapes. One of the girls thought she

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

According to the Merriam- Webster dictionary, hysteria is defined as “A situation in which many people behave or react in an extreme or uncontrolled way because of fear, anger, etc.” Whenever the girls accused others for bewitching them, hysteria played a role in the play. One would pretend to see a spirit and getting attacked by them, get a cold, or cry in pain and fear. The other girls, who witnessed her actions, imagined that they felt the emotions like a contagious disease, and acted as if they saw or felt the same thing. Mary Warren, in the court with John Proctor, had confessed to the judges that everything was a lie and explained in the court how it all happened,” "I--I heard the other girls screaming, and you, Your Honor, you seemed to believe them, and I--It were only sport in the beginning sir, but then the whole world cried spirits, spirits, and I--I promise you, Mr. Danforth, I only thought I saw them but I did not” (Miller

Hysteria is displayed by communities all over the world. It is an important factor in making and especially breaking relationships. In The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, hysteria plays an important role of tearing apart the community of Salem by creating an environment where people act on their grudges. It is shown by many of the characters throughout the play as they eventually ruin one another as the book goes on. Mass hysteria negatively affects the lives of people around us. Many things have changed around us since 1692 but the belief of mass hysteria hasn't. The Crucible remains important in society today because the mass hysteria portrayed in the Salem Witch Trials was shown in the N.Y outbreak.

Psychological elements appear in various gothic tales. Specifically, the Gothic tends to exploit the disorders related to abnormal psychology. A common psychological disorder that is portrayed in the Gothic is madness/insanity. Furthermore, madness in the Gothic is primarily attributed female characters, who were often initially diagnosed with hysteria or a nervous disorder that typically later led to the diagnosis of madness. In “A Whisper in the Dark” by Louisa Alcott, a female character is pushed to the point of madness after being subjected to perverse psychiatric treatment under the supervision of a male doctor. I will argue that the psychiatric treatment the doctor prescribes led to the madness of Sybil; moreover, the “psychiatric treatment” was a façade to cover an abuse of patriarchal power to maintain control of the female patient rather than provide true diagnosis or

A countless number of elements can be accounted for when analyzing someone's behavior and thoughts. Hysteria, uncontrollable emotion among groups, is a major leader in past and present day society when it comes to how people act and think in different situations. The Crucible provides great examples with how hysteria can affect a group of people. Back in Salem, Massachusetts 1692, hysterics swept the town, creating a storm of emotions. Everyone wondering, what to do? What to think? In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the effects of mass hysteria to reveal his purpose of using it in his writing, how society at that time reacts to hysterics, and the consequences of these incoherences, which still appear in present-day.

Hysterical, frantic and out of control; these were phrases that people used to describe a woman's state of mind when diagnosed with the condition known as hysteria. Hysteria is a condition that has been around for two-thousand years, but not accepted by doctors as such an issue. (Anderson) There are many examples of hysteria in women within our media today along with media from years before; Emily Dickinson, Charlotte from the Yellow Wallpaper, Tara from The United States of Tara, Abigail from The Crucible and various others. Even though, there are ample amount of examples within media and history concerning women, mental illness and hysteria; men are just as vulnerable to it. Hysteria is a legitimate issue that still exists today, but it is

According to Freud hysteria is a nervous disorder that causes violent fits of laughter, crying, and imagination. It is a lack of

Hysteria is a form of uncontrollable emotion, this is shown both in The Crucible and in the modern world. Mass shootings are happening all across the world; these events have blown up the media, resulting in fear amongst

The portrayal of people being sickly creatures has been used in Hollywood film for a very long time. This has been in the endeavor of putting the viewing public in the shoes of the patient and entertain them with over the top portrayals of disease. For patients that are women in particular this has been achieved by defining them along the lines of vague terms such as them being over emotional and unstable. Despite the advancement experienced by the society, women have not yet fully seen the goal of equality realize fruition. With the expansion of the psychiatric and psychological terminologies, there now additional ways via which mental illness can be ascribed as a weakness for men and women portrayed in Hollywood film. This is best

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

In most cases, people who are portrayed with mental illnesses are commonly exhibited as being violent and/or aggressive, but are also frequently depicted as eccentrics, seductresses (in the case of women), self-obsessives, objects for scientific observation, simpletons and/or failures. One or more of these such labels can reasonably be applied to the characters examined in both The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Holy City... As such, a skewed, and ultimately rather unsavoury, picture of mental illness is often presented to the public. There is plenty of evidence that these pervasive negative portrayals can have harmful effects, particularly effects they might incur through perpetuating the stigma associated with mental illness as well as potentially reducing the likelihood that those with mental illness will seek out the appropriate help. In April 2005, a psychological review put together by Jane Pirkis, R Warwick Blood, Catherine Francis and Kerry McCallum examined the effect of fictional portrayals of mental illness. They made reference to studies that have employed surveys and focus groups to examine the sources of community attitudes towards mental illness, having found that the media in general are perceived as the root of such