Body Paragraph Draft

        Throughout Lecture 1 Freud makes it clear to listeners that doctors have been treating
patients who are diagnosed with hysteria poorly compared to those diagnosed with “organic
diseases”(Freud 8). Doctors such as Breuer during that time viewed hysteric patients as
individuals who embellish their illness and “malinger”(Freud 8). Doctors would have such an
unreasonable and harsh perspective on hysteria because they did not understand it or know
the meaning and science. Freud analyzes Breuer’s treatment methods for his patient and his
scientific research on the theory of hysteria and rules that “such a theory could only be a child
of his speculation and could not be the fruit of an unprejudiced examination of the facts.
(Freud 16) Breuer’s theory fails to thoroughly and accurately define hysteria because of his
bias and preconception of what individuals with hysteria struggle and face.

                                                        First Draft

Suhaila Islam
Professor Von Uhl
FIQWS H9 (12:30pm&2:00pm)
18/9/2021

                              The struggles that come with an Invisible Illness
Have you ever experienced anxiety, hopelessness, or distress at any point in your life?
Millions of individuals around the world struggle silently because of the stigma behind
mental health. They are reluctant to seek help seeing as hundreds of people are labeled as
weak, attention-seeking, and overdramatic for doing so. Why is this the case? Aren’t we
supposed to treat everyone with kindness regardless of their struggles? Well, the problem
between our society and mental health dates back to 1880. It’s clear through Sigmund Freud’s
Lecture one, and the Yellow Wallpaper that doctors during his time have been treating
patients who are diagnosed with illnesses that appear to be hysteria as though they are less
important compared to an individual diagnosed with a physical disease.
Doctors during that time viewed hysteric patients as individuals who embellish their
illnesses. Physicians had such an unreasonable and harsh perspective on hysteria because
they weren’t able to comprehend the situation nor the science. This is evident seeing as Freud
mentions “but all his knowledge-his training in anatomy, in physiology and in
pathology-leaves him in the lurch when he is confronted by the details of hysterical
phenomena. He cannot understand hysteria, and in the face of it he is himself a
layman.”(Freud 7) Both doctors and regular individuals would treat illnesses such as hysteria
as theoretical. They would not take it seriously or give the correct treatment and medical
advice to help the individual get better.
Throughout the short story The Yellow Wallpaper, the main character expresses her
struggles with her nervous depression and how writing makes her feel better, but her husband
refuses to believe that and feels as though he knows what’s best because he’s the physician.
Her mental state deteriorates as the story goes on because she is not getting the help she
needs; instead, she is faced with the inclination of her hallucinations, and a husband who she
feels won’t believe her. This is distinctly showcased because she says “John is practical in the
extreme, John is a physician, perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster. You see he
does not believe I am sick! And what can one do?”(Gilman 1) John does not give his wife the
opportunity to express how she feels but rather gaslights her for the entirety of the short story.
This story was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman for the sole purpose of “saving
people from being driven crazy”(Gilman 1) as expressed in Why I Wrote The Yellow
Wallpaper. She suffered from a mental illness, and when she went to get the help she
desperately needed she was instead given medical advice that did more harm than good in her
case. They told her to change her lifestyle completely. To go from an intellectually driven
woman to someone who stays in bed all day. Maybe that’s because they viewed her as
incapable and ill because she is a woman. Her cries and struggles were heard but ignored, so
she stood up for herself in order to stand up for all the other women struggling as well.
Doctors did not listen, husbands did not pay attention, and society labeled them
over-dramatic and hysterical because they are women who suffer from illnesses that are not
physical.
Through research, soon it became apparent to physicians such as the narrator’s
husband in the Yellow Wallpaper that although they do not understand it these women are
experiencing hysteria or an illness that resembles it. The Yellow Wallpaper accurately
portrays Freud’s criticism of most doctors because the woman within the story represents
women globally. Her story’s told because so many other individuals go through life feeling as
though they are weak because of what men and doctors say to them when in reality, they are
sick and in need of dire medical treatment. It is clear to readers when the narrator in The
Yellow Wallpaper mentions that her husband John “says no one but myself can help me out
of it, that I must use my will and self-control and not let any silly fantasies run away with
me.”(Gilman 6) John truly believes that his wife is the main cause of her illness and that her
intrusive thoughts and struggles come down merely her imagination. Doctors such as her wife
who are close-minded and misogynistic are the reason millions of women go through
hardships in silence.