Analysis Of Sigmund Freud's The Yellow Wallpaper

In Sigmund Freud’s first lecture, Freud goes in depth on his developed theory of psychoanalysis. Through simple terms and analogies, he describes to his audience of layman his new findings and techniques towards those who suffer from mental illnesses. He’s collaborative work with Viennese physician, Dr. Breuer brought about great changes on how hysterical patients are viewed and treated. Freud’s lecture also shed light on doctors of that period of time failing to recognize the seriousness of psychological disturbances. They instead acknowledge them as an act of exaggerations and not “organic diseases of the brain” (Freud, page18). He’s view of doctors’ attitudes are demonstrated in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

The narrator finds herself in a colonial mansion forbidden by her physician husband to do any activities. He discourages her from writing to cure her nervous breakdown. Her husband can be seen as a representation on how doctors would view patients with hysteria. Although the narrator’s husband didn’t treat her with wickedness like the doctors in Freud’s lecture, he would dismiss her. Whenever she would talk about how she despised the yellow wallpaper and the room, he would respond by saying “There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours. It is a false and foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so? " (Gilman, page 652). He also speaks to her as if she was a child by saying “bless her little heart” and his “little girl” (Gilman, Page 652). He ignores her growing frustration, and instead tells her she’s alright. Overtime the narrator becomes fixated with the yellow wallpaper, she describes it as “repellant, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight”. Ultimately she becomes obsess with the wallpaper and tries to discover the mystery behind the it. Her husband’s resting cure had a negative effect on her, she tries her best to follow the treatment but it suffocates her. “I ‘ve got out at last, in spite of you and Jane? I’ve

She was advised by a specialist to “live as domestic a life as far as possible” (Gilman, page 271). Gilman’s situation worsened, but with the help of a friend she cast out the advice of the doctor and went back to living a regular life. Freud’s lecture depicts doctors’ attitudes of hysterical patients as wicked, frustrating and unpleasant. Their medical skills were powerless against hysteria, their methods had no positive effect on their patients. Just like the doctors in the lecture, the narrator’s husband didn’t listen to his wife he would ignore what she would say tell her he knows what was best for her. If more doctors had Breuer’s sympathetic and patient attitude toward their patients, they might’ve achieved some