Sigmund Freud’s “Five Lectures On Psycho-Analysis” is a thorough inspection of the developing idea of what the meaning of “hysteria” truly is and how it comes about. Through this written version of his lectures, Freud brings up the idea that doctors become layman when in the presence of a mentally-ill patient. They begin to get irritated in the presence of a “hysteric” person, as they do not understand what has caused them to act in that certain manner. However, when he compares these actions to the way his peer Dr.Breur approached his patients and noticed how much more sympathetic he was towards them, he realized that the doctor’s attitude really does affect it’s patient. In the novel, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the audience gets to see how disadvantaged these doctors really are. In Gilman’s novel, it illustrates Freud’s criticism of most doctors as we watch the narrator and her husband’s relationship reveal it’s true form throughout the story.
In Gilman’s novel, the narrator introduces her relationship with her husband John as any other relationship, except John is a physician, and most importantly her physician. John, who is only a doctor of the physical body does not really know how to cure his wife, so he does what every other physician in the 1800’s, and puts his wife on rest cure. The rest cure as we know now is not a very effective way of curing the mentally ill. So in the novel, this contributes to the reasoning behind why the narrator ultimately has her “mental breakdown”. This relates back to Freud’s idea of doctors being neglectful of their hysteric patients as John does not really know how to properly care for a hysteric patient, therefore leading to the incorrect method of curing his wife. As Freud explains —
“He cannot understand hysteria, and in 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. So it comes about that hysterical patients forfeit his sympathy. ” ( Freud 2201).
This quote explains that once a doctor diagnoses his patient with hysteria, he begins to lose interest as he is now a “layman” meaning that he knows nothing of that practice. It is almost an insult towards his career as he is supposed to know all of the human body. So instead, the doctor chooses to neglect them; If it cannot be physically seen, then the doctor should pay no mind to it.
Another supporting evidence from Gilman’s novel that underpins Freud’s idea of doctors when faced with hysteria is the distance that is created between the narrator and her husband. Throughout the story, as the narrator’s mental health declines, we see and hear less of her husband John. This relates back to Freud’s idea as it is another form of neglect on John’s part. In the novel, it states “ John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.” (Gilman 649). In this quote, we get to see how John does not really care enough to get any further information on how the narrator really feels, but instead holds onto his ego and trusts his judgment far better as he cannot see that there is any physical issue. This relates back to Freud’s statement of how since these physicians cannot identify the issue with the patient, they begin to neglect the patient, which is what John seems to be doing as he is never truly interested in getting further information on his wife’s illness. Instead, John continuously insists that his wife must stay on bed rest while he is out in town with his actual ill patients.
In Freud’s “Five Lectures of Psycho-Analysis” and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” the audience really gets to see how mental illness can affect a person in many ways. It also uncovers the way that doctors mistreat such patients due to their little knowledge of such a grand topic. As we see the narrator and her husband’s relationship unfold throughout the story; and her husband’s continuous neglect of his wife contributes to his wife’s downfall. It most importantly highlights how highly the narrator thinks of her husband and therefore must abide by his rules, which is definitely an irony towards the issue that he really knows nothing at all.
