Christopher Velez

Professor Von Uhl

FIQWS 10108 (Writing Section)

9/27/23

Freud’s Critique of Hysteria Treatment: A Comparative Analysis with ‘The Yellow Wallpaper

In the “Five Lectures On Psycho-Analysis,” Sigmund Freud, the renowned psychologist, discusses his Psychoanalysis theory. In his theory he evokes his belief that individuals can achieve healing and transformation through the awareness of their subconscious thoughts. Throughout His lectures He speaks on His thoughts through his experience with doctors attitudes when it came to hysteria patients, In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrates Freud’s criticism of most doctors by using an alternative version of Gilmans personal experience with the unsuccessful rest cure during her postpartum depression told through Gilmans narrator.

Freud came to deliver five lectures over five days in September 1909 at Clark University. When reading Freud’s first lecture, Freud goes into depth on doctors who treated patients of hysteria, Throughout the reading Freud’s main point he’s trying to bring upon the listener is that Doctors in the late 1800s did not treat patients with hysteria the right way, Frued Argues “The Doctors have learned many things that remain a sealed book to the layman… he cannot understand hysteria, and the face of it he is himself a layman. This is not a pleasant situation for anyone who as a rule sets so much store by his knowledge.”(Freud, 2201) Based on Freud’s intellect he believed that many doctors treated patients of Hysteria as more of a physical problem instead of treating it as a psychological disorder. Doctors didn’t treat them accordingly because they had no knowledge on how hysteria patients truly felt.

Between Freud’s analysis of doctors from the 1800s and from the Yellow Wallpaper They bring upon a connection that brings forth Freud’s criticism of most doctors on how they treated these patients. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Gilamn, Charlotte Perkins the Narrator in the short story has a psychological disorder and her husband and Brother are her Doctors who treat her disorder as a “physical” problem. Gilman writes “he says really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression… my brother is also a physician and also of high standing and he says the same thing” (Gilman, 648). The narrator believes she is suffering from hysteria but her husband and brother think otherwise, Freud’s statement  on Doctors who don’t help their patients just send them to “rest” connects to “The Yellow Wallpaper” as the Husband and brother just see her problem as something temporary.  

  On the other hand, unlike most doctors of the 1,800s. Josef Breuer, Austrian physician and physiologist, was Sigmund Freud’s mentor for many years, Over the years Freud made the distinction between how Breuer and other doctors treated patients He realized that Breuer was very different he treated patients with sympathy and patience, Furthermore Freud speaks “Dr.Breuers attitude towards his patients deserved no such reproach. He gave her both sympathy and interest even though, to begin with, he did not know how to help her”(Freud, 2202). Although Breuer’s knowledge and experience with these patients were at a minimum he still took his time with them trying to understand how their minds work in order to help them. Moreover Frued goes on to speak upon the attitude of doctors when it came to female patients, Frued tells “If a picture of this kind is presented by a young patient of the female sex, whose vital internal organs (heart, kidneys, etc.) are shown on objective examination to be normal, but who has been subjected to violent emotional shocks – if, moreover, her various symptoms differ in certain matters of detail from what would have been expected – then Doctors are not inclined to take the case too seriously”(Freud, 2202). Not resembling doctors like Dr.Breuer who Frued praises in his first lecture for his distinctive attitude towards his patients. He distinguishes the fact women with mental illnesses were treated less Doctors were not “inclined to take the case too seriously” Unlike Dr.Breuer who no matter the gender always treated hysteria cases no different than another illness.

Freud’s criticism is supported in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The story elaborately explains how the narrator who suffered hysteria had family physicians who did not believe her and just focused on the physical symptoms to make her “better”. Gilman writes “I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it ·more. He said we came here solely on my account, that I was to have perfect rest and all the air I could get”(Gilman, 648). This demonstrates the accuracy of Freud’s views and highlights the lack of understanding among doctors of that era regarding this subject, Instead of truly trying to acknowledge and figure out how to help people dealing with hysteria Doctors completely ignore the patients feelings and suggest the “rest cure” which is simply  a strictly enforced regime of six to eight weeks of bed rest and isolation, Without any creative or intellectual activity or incentive.

 To summarize, Freud’s analysis on  most Doctors of his era was simply pointing out the flaws in their professions when dealing with patients with hysteria as it was mirrored through  Gilaman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Gilmans reasoning as to why she wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” was to bring awareness and provide comfort to other people who dealt with mental issues. As told in Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper” (1913) she writes “It was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked.”  This proves Gilman’s work was a precedent which truly saved lives and gave sanity to many. What people needed wasn’t the “rest cure”, it was the comfort, patience and understanding of their Doctors to help them in their own way which was what Freud’s analysis was trying to evoke.

WORK CITED: Freud, Sigmund. “Five Lectures On Psycho-Analysis.” Five Lectures On Psycho-Analysis. Sept.1909, Clark University, Worcester Massachusetts.Perkins Stetson, Charlotte. “The Yellow Wallpaper.”The Yellow Wallpaper.  Jan. 1892