How Doctors React to patients with Hysterical tendency 

Sigmund Freud is the founder of psychoanalysis. According to Freud, Hysteria was the response of traumatic experiences which the patient fails to confront, because it will cause them too much distress and this can be converted into physical symptoms. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman is about a woman suffering from nervous depression and her obsession with the wallpaper where the narrator claims to see a woman trapped behind the wallpaper. In both texts, the doctor’s attitude towards hysterical patients is different from patients suffering from organic illness or physical symptoms.

However, the attitude of most doctors to hysterical patients was different from when they treat physical symptoms. In lecture 1 Freud says “ 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: for the hysteric’s ailment is in fact far less serious…” ( Freud 2201).  Freud is saying that doctors did not take Hysteria cases seriously because not much is known about Hysteria. The doctors are looking for physical symptoms that they have more knowledge in and can help with. Again Freud continues  “ 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. He regards them as people who are transgressing the laws of his science – like heretics in the eyes of the orthodox. He attributes every kind of wickedness to them, accuses them of exaggeration, of deliberate deceit, of malingering. And he punishes them by withdrawing his interest from them” ( Freud 2201). With little information known about Hysteria, doctors are not able to sympathize with patients who are actually feeling lots of emotional stress and trauma. This leads doctors to believe that the patients are just exaggerating their pain. Every patient experiences pain in a subjective manner so not all patients are alike. But In Freud’s lecture, Freud accuses doctors of showing their bias of pain and prejudgment towards their patients suffering from Hysteria and cause them to lose interest in the patient. Ultimately, the doctors withdraw and the patient is left with no solution to their problem.

According to Freud Dr. Breuer’s attitude towards his patient is much more different than other doctors. Freud says “ Dr. Breuer’s attitude towards his patient deserved no such reproach. He gave her both sympathy and interest, even though, to begin with, he did not know how to help her” ( Freud 2202). Even though Breuer did not know how to help the patients he still had sympathy for her and was interested in helping her. This shows how he cares about the patient’s health and wants to be able to help her because Breuer considers all aspects of his patients’ life and so he focuses on the emotional expression of the patient. Freud continues “ It seems likely that she herself made his task easier by the admirable qualities of intellect and character to which he has testified in her case history. Soon, moreover, his benevolent scrutiny showed him the means of bringing her a first instalment of help” ( Freud 2202). The patient admired Breuer personality and intellect and made it easier for him to work with her and his “ benevolent Scrutiny”.

In the Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator’s husband is a physician and he diagnoses his wife with hysterical tendency.  At the beginning of the text, She says he ”is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction”, adding that ”He takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more” ( Charolette 648).  So its as she feels like a burden to him because her husband has to make sure she is alright. As we go further into the text this loving relationship turns into John having control or manipulation of his wife and it seems John seems to care about her well-being but believes he knows what is best for her and doesn’t allow her input. In the Yellow wallpaper it says. “I don’t like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hang­ ings! but John would not hear of it. He said there was only one window and not room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another” ( Charlotte 648). Her opinion about the room she stays in is of no value. She is forced to stay in a room which makes her feel uneasy, but John has trapped her in this particular room, where the windows have bars and the wallpaper which causes more distress. He seems to keep giving his wife excuses instead of compromising. In the text, John says “The repairs are not done at home, and I cannot possibly leave town just now. Of course, if you were in any danger, I could and would, but you really are better dear, whether you can see it or not. I am a doctor, dear, and I know” ( Charlotte 652). It appears that he is assuming that he knows what’s best for her, and not taking her requests or opinions into account at all. He justifies this by telling her that he is a doctor, therefore he should know what is good for her.

Overall, both texts show the differences between the doctor’s attitude towards hysterical patients. In Lecture 1 Freud accuses the doctor of showing their bias of pain and prejudgment towards their patients suffering from Hysteria and cause them to lose interest in the patient. However, Breuer’s attitude towards hysterical patients was different because he showed sympathy and interest for the patient even though he didn’t know much about hysteria and his personality made his patient feel more at ease. In the Yellow wallpaper, it is similar to what Freud says about other doctors attitude towards hysterical patients because in the Yellow wallpaper the husband who is a physician s assumes that he knows what’s best for his wife, and does not take her requests or opinions into account at all and while she stays in the room she must not do anything other than rest. 

Work cited Page 

• Freud, Sigmund. “Five Lectures On Psycho-Analysis.” LECTURE II. The Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Foundation, Sept. 1909, MASSACHUSETTS, CLARK UNIVERSITY. 
• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Virago Press, 1981.