As Jonah Lehrer phrases it in his book, Proust Was a Neuroscientist, some associate novelists and writers with “weaving pretty tales” (viii) and scientists with “objectively describing the universe” through their “perfect reflections of reality” (viii). However, it is in fact quite a “different story” (viii) as art and science are more closely intertwined and linked than one might believe. By scrutinizing modern psychiatry and modern literature, one can observe the relationship that exists between the art and science. Modernist writers “most explicitly anticipated our science” (ix); aspects of modern psychiatric theories are identified in modernist literary works. Lehrer points out that “…(Gertrude) Stein anticipated (Avram Noam) Chomsky, …show more content…
Deemed “ill”, the narrator is forced into rest cure, “So I take phosphates or phosphites – whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to ‘work’ until I am well again.” (Gilman 1). The forced confinement and the absence of “congenial work, with excitement and change” (Gilman 1) drive the narrator deeper into insanity as the story progress. Convinced by her husband and brother, who are established physicians of “high standing” (Gilman 1), the narrator starts to believe she is actually mentally ill. Thus, as Janet’s theory suggests, the narrator’s own belief that she is mentally ill, “patients own idea of pathology”, results in her showing signs of hysteria, “translated into physical disability” (Tasca et al. 114). Also, Janet’s theory that the hysteria is caused by subconscious reasons can be also observed in the story. The hysterical narrator identifies women who are trying to “climb through that pattern” in the wallpapers but “ the pattern strangles them off and turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white” (Gilman 12). It is clear that these “women” are attempting to escape from imprisonment, the wallpaper. Such hallucinations are realizations of the narrator’s