Analytical Essay on Hysteria
Dixie-Anna West
Ms. Gina Colantino
English 102
June 7, 2012
Murdering Mothers:
How Freudian Hysteria Caused Women to Forsake Nurturing Imagine that you’re a woman in the 19th century, a man’s world. You have just had your first child and have been experiencing sad, lonely feelings and numbness in your arms. Your husband takes you to see a psychologist by the name of Sigmund Freud. He thus diagnoses you with his latest theorized disorder, hysteria. Dr. Freud then says that the only cure is an immediate hysterectomy. Your “insanity” makes you an incapable mother. Freud’s diagnoses of hysteria led women to the brink of insanity as they were lured to forsake their roles as mothers. During the same time period, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein represents hysteria, thus undermining the stereotype of only women being emotionally obsessive or unstable. In the late 19th century, the practice of psychology was receiving much notability. Psych wards and mental hospitals were established for those thought to be a harm or nuisance to society. Even the sanest person could have been locked behind bars for the rest of their life if they showed need for further care or if they failed to cooperate with the administration. There was an order to how things were done during this time period. Women were to be homemakers and take care of the nine plus children that they had birthed. To be unable to fulfill these duties as mother and wife was disgraceful to not only the woman, but to the entire family who would become motherless. As psychology was making its rise as a credible and wise profession, so was one notable psychologist –Sigmund Freud. Freud had made headway in his heyday publishing Aetiology of Hysteria in 1896. In this book, Freud discusses the cause of hysteria in women only. Now the word “hysteria” comes from the Greek root, hystera, meaning womb (Gray). The Greeks were likely the first ones to discover hysteria, but Freud is the psychologist who
Ms. Gina Colantino
English 102
June 7, 2012
Murdering Mothers:
How Freudian Hysteria Caused Women to Forsake Nurturing Imagine that you’re a woman in the 19th century, a man’s world. You have just had your first child and have been experiencing sad, lonely feelings and numbness in your arms. Your husband takes you to see a psychologist by the name of Sigmund Freud. He thus diagnoses you with his latest theorized disorder, hysteria. Dr. Freud then says that the only cure is an immediate hysterectomy. Your “insanity” makes you an incapable mother. Freud’s diagnoses of hysteria led women to the brink of insanity as they were lured to forsake their roles as mothers. During the same time period, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein represents hysteria, thus undermining the stereotype of only women being emotionally obsessive or unstable. In the late 19th century, the practice of psychology was receiving much notability. Psych wards and mental hospitals were established for those thought to be a harm or nuisance to society. Even the sanest person could have been locked behind bars for the rest of their life if they showed need for further care or if they failed to cooperate with the administration. There was an order to how things were done during this time period. Women were to be homemakers and take care of the nine plus children that they had birthed. To be unable to fulfill these duties as mother and wife was disgraceful to not only the woman, but to the entire family who would become motherless. As psychology was making its rise as a credible and wise profession, so was one notable psychologist –Sigmund Freud. Freud had made headway in his heyday publishing Aetiology of Hysteria in 1896. In this book, Freud discusses the cause of hysteria in women only. Now the word “hysteria” comes from the Greek root, hystera, meaning womb (Gray). The Greeks were likely the first ones to discover hysteria, but Freud is the psychologist who
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