The Impact of different viewpoints

Empathy for others should be a trait that all humans, especially doctors, possess. They should be kind and constantly make their patients feel cared for, regardless of their situation. The Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud gave a presentation, “First Lecture on Psychoanalysis”, in which he explored illnesses such as hysteria. While Charlotte Perkins Gilman, an American novelist, wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” which depicts a concise example about the life of a mentally ill women in our society. Which concludes that doctors should pay much more attention to hysterical patients because it is the only treatment option they can offer. 

Hysteria is a medical term that refers to uncontrollable emotional behavior. According to Freud, most doctors have an inattentive approach towards hysterical patients. They believe that hysteria is not a serious illness. They also believe other conditions are significantly more severe like brain or organ diseases. Doctors believe “there is no risk to life but that a return to health”(Freud 2200). Furthermore, doctors simply state that as long as it is not a physical ailment, it is not dangerous. It’s a mistake to underestimate mental disorders like Hysteria since they’re equally as dangerous as, if not more dangerous than, physical illnesses. Because hysteria, unlike other physical ailments, has no cure. Hysterical patients should be treated with empathy and care at the very least. Contrarily, Dr. Bruer’s attitude towards hysterical patients is the complete opposite of other physicians. He “gave her both sympathy and interest, to begin with, he did not know how to help her” (Freud 2202). Medicine is powerless when it comes to hysteria yet Dr. Breur still tries his best to make them feel cared for since it’s the only thing he can offer. Other doctors, on the other hand, are far too ignorant to handle such a serious illness and refuse to acknowledge it as an alarming sickness. Imagine being mentally ill and seeking help from your most trusted source, medical professionals, only to be ignored or treated as if you were perfectly fine. This can lead to negative consequences, such as worsening their illness or deciding to end their life. Thus, Doctors should provide care and interest to hysterical patients to the best of their ability. 

Family also plays a main roll in situations like this. They can support you or they can make you condition downgrade. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman, the narrator goes through an unpleasant experience as a hysterical patient. She was prescribed “the rest cure” treatment where she just has to sit and rest. This makes her husband, John, a physician, become so controlling and strict not allowing her to socialize or do her favorite hobbies, like writing, until she gets better. Not knowing that it will only make her condition worse. John believes“there is no reason to suffer”(Gilman 649). Similarly, John is underestimating his wife’s sickness like other professionals that were criticized by Freud. Doctors can mistreat their patients but your own family shouldn’t specially when you’re in that state of mental health because it will make your case get worse. Moreover, the results of being locked in a nursery, not being allowed to write, and most importantly not being listened to or cared for especially from her husband led the narrator to hallucinate. The narrator believes there is a “woman stooping and creeping about behind that pattern.. She wanted to get out”(Gilman 652). Because she’s locked, she pictures a woman being locked in the yellow wallpaper which reflects on how she feels. Therefore, if her husband  showed her interest then her case wouldn’t progress to hallucination. 

Finally, hysteria is a serious sickness that doctors should treat first and foremost. Despite the fact that it is not a physical sickness, it is indeed a mental condition with serious implications. This is because if the human mind is not in good condition, it will most likely result in physical harm. Both Gilman and Freud precisely outlined what hysterical patients go through and how society aggravates their suffering by minimizing their condition. Sicknesses of any kind are severe and require medical attention especially ones with no cure.

Texts cited 

The Yellow Wallpaper: 

The-Yellow-Wall-Paper_Original.pdf 

Freud’s Lectures

 Sigmund Freud [1909] Five Lectures on Psych-Aanalysis _James Strachey translation, 1955_.pdf

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.