How would you treat an illness you had no clue about?
Freud strived to depict the extraordinary nature of psychoanalysis throughout his lectures. He mentioned how back then doctors would not properly treat patients that did not have organic diseases. Freud felt that this problem needed to be addressed, so his colleague, Dr. Breuer, and he focused on the illness called hysteria. Dr. Breuer genuinely cared about his patient even though he had no idea how to treat hysteria. Consequently, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” John had different beliefs about the illness, which resulted in madness. John and Freud shared different beliefs when it came to treating illnesses.
The main idea that Freud wanted his audience to understand was that doctors did not properly handle patients with mental illnesses and that Breuer was the one to break that tradition. Freud believed doctors treated patients with hysteria as if their life wasn’t in danger and they would return back to their normal health. He thought that this attitude towards these patients was because they had no knowledge about these illnesses, stating that “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.” (Freud 2201). Freud is emphasizing how the doctors showed no pity to patients that didn’t have organic disease. Contrarily, Dr. Breuer’s attitude toward these patients was different from the other doctors. He wasn’t sure how to treat hysteria but yet he showed sympathy and interest in his patient. Moreover, Breuer later came up with the treatment known as the talking cure that made the symptoms start to disappear. Freud realized that Breuer was actually taking hysterical patients seriously, saying that, “ Never before had anyone removed a hysterical symptom by such a method or had thus gained so deep an insight into its causation.”(Freud 2203). Freud saw Dr.Breuer’s benevolent examination towards his patients with hysteria, and how they both shared similar views.
Freud’s criticism of doctors is also depicted in the story “The Yellow Wallpaper”. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” we learn that the narrator is ill and has “a slight hysterical tendency”(Gilman 648). Her husband John, who is a physician does not truly believe the narrator is ill and thinks she will heal by herself. This is exactly what Freud was concerned about when he said, “ He cannot understand hysteria, and in the face of it he is himself a layman” (Freud 2201). Freud is acknowledging that doctors back then had no idea how to treat illness like hysteria, so they decided not to help at all. Furthermore, John uses the resting cure on his wife only to make it worse, instead of actually helping he treats her as if she’s a child. The narrator states, “ There is something strange about the house – I can feel it. I even said so to John one moonlight evening, but he said what I felt was a draught, and shut the window.”(Gilman 648). This backs up Freud’s criticism of doctors as John is quite dismissive of his patient/wife’s needs and drives her mental health down the drain.
Reading Freud’s lectures made his attitude towards doctors seem reasonable. Mental health is important and should be taken more seriously, as you can perceive in “ The Yellow Wallpaper” what happens if you don’t. Freud has made immense strides in understanding hysteria with psychoanalysis, which helped set a precedent for future doctors. A doctor should always have an interest in their patient no matter the illness or obstacle. Freud understood the significance of mental health and helped steer the direction to make others understand too.
Works Cited Page
Freud, Sigmund. (1910a [1909]). Five lectures on psychoanalysis. SE, 11: 7-55.
CLARK UNIVERSITY, WORCESTER MASSACHUSETTS September 1909
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 1860-1935. The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Reader: The Yellow Wallpaper, and Other Fiction. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980.
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