The Rest Cure
Repetition or Resolution of Victorian Women's Conflicts
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4376141 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ellen L Bassuk (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1985 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 1/2 |
| Pages | 245 |
| Publication date | 1985-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Poetics Today (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0333-5372 • E-ISSN: 1527-5507 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1772132 |
| OpenAlex | W2317433818 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 3 |
During the late nineteenth century, Victorian doctors frequently administered S. Weir Mitchell's famous to women with severe nervous symptoms. These included patients diagnosed as hypochondriacs, hysterics, and most commonly, neurasthenics.1 Supposedly, many benefited but others, such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Virginia Woolf, became even sicker and condemned both Mitchell and his treatment.2 Certainly, the rest cure was less barbaric than leeching, cauterization and normal ovariotomy-procedures that were also used to treat women with nervous ailments (Bassuk unpublished; Currier 1886). But it too seemed sadistic, controlling, and intrusive
Cauterization · Personality · Personality disorders · Psychoanalysis · Sadistic personality disorder · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Medical History and Innovations · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology · Internal Medicine · Surgery
| Citations per year | 0.26 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1991 - 2025 (35) |
| Highly cited | No |