Coming to an understanding but not really
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis presented a lecture at Clark University, Massachusetts. His lecture, the Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis was about the history, development, and treatment of Hysteria. According to Freud, Hysteria is a psychological disorder that is thought to come from a traumatic event in a patient’s life. The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is about an unnamed woman, the narrator’s mental health worsening as she is on “rest cure” during vacation. The doctor is the narrator’s husband. Her obsession with the wallpaper in her room contributes to her mental health declining. The three doctors’ attitudes toward hysterical patients are different from each other, therefore making Freud’s criticism correct about other doctors which are how patients are treated with little care for their well-being.
Freud’s criticism of most doctors is how hysterical patients are treated with little care. In lecture 1 it states “It is noticeable that his attitude towards hysterical patients is quite other than towards sufferers from organic diseases. He does not have the same sympathy for the former as for the latter: for the hysteric’s ailment is in fact far less serious (Freud 2201)”. Freud is saying that doctors do not take cases of hysteria seriously it is believed to be an exaggeration of people’s thoughts. Doctors treat physical symptoms, so with the previous thought at hand, this makes matter not serious. In lecture 1 it says “It comes about that hysterical patients forfeit his sympathy…. accuses them of exaggeration … And he punishes them by withdrawing his interest from them (Freud 2201)”. Here it says doctors do not give any regard to patients as their problem is not serious compared to physical injuries.
According to Freud, Dr. Breuer’s attitude toward his patient is different from the rest of the doctors. “Dr. Breuer’s attitude towards his patient 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).” Breuer was unable to help his patient but was sympathetic and interested in treating the illness. This shows that he cared for his patient’s health as if it were a physical injury.
In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator’s husband John is a physician, and diagnosed his wife with hysteria, so he prescribes bed rest for her. John soon takes control of the narrator, believing that he knows what is best for her. “I don’t like our room one bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hang-ings! But John would not hear of it. He said that there was only one window and not the room with two beds, and no near room for him if he took another” (Gilman 648). She has no right to have an opinion for the room she wants. The narrator is forced to stay in a room that makes her feel nervous, John has trapped her in the nursery room in which the windows are barred and have an eerie wallpaper that causes the narrator to stress throughout the text.
Both texts, Freud’s Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis and Charlotte Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper show the differences between the doctors’ attitudes on treating hysteria. In lecture 1 of Freud, it tells us how Breuer did not know how to help his patient but still made the effort to try which means he wants to help. Also in lecture 1, Freud states how the other doctors feel about hysteria as a whole “It is noticeable that his attitude towards hysterical patients is quite other than towards sufferers from organic diseases. He does not have the same sympathy for the former as for the latter: for the hysteric’s ailment is in fact far less serious (Freud 2201)”. Here it is said that doctors do not care about hysteria since it is an exaggeration and the time spent on them, the doctors can use on someone else with real problems. This is shown in The Yellow Wallpaper with John ignoring the narrator’s request for the room change and making the decision for her. Making the narrator, who is diagnosed with hysteria, opinions irrelevant and making Freud’s criticism about the other doctors correct.
Work Cited
Freud, Sigmund. Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis. W.W. Norton & Co, Inc., 1961. Semantic
Scholar.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” New England Magazine, May 1891, pp.
647-656.
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