What was the rest cure in the Yellow Wallpaper?
In addition to narcotics, Mitchell prescribed a rest cure to calm them and limit movement that would keep them from healing. The cure involved four basic elements: bed rest, force-feeding and overfeeding, massage, and electrical stimulation of the muscles.
Where did rest cure originate?
As a remedy, neurologist S. Weir Mitchell, a wealthy and influential Philadelphia neurologist, created the rest cure, a regimen of forced bed rest, restricted diet, and a combination of massage and electrical muscle stimulation in place of exercise.
What was the West cure?
First proposed by Silas Weir Mitchell in the late nineteenth century, the “West cure” was developed to treat men suffering from a version of anxiety known as neurasthenia. (Women suffering from neurasthenia got “the rest cure”—they were sent to bed for months on end and spoon-fed milk.)
What was the rest cure meant to treat?
Noticing that many nervous women looked thin and anemic, Mitchell assumed that their physical and mental health would improve once they gained weight and red blood cells. The function of the rest cure was to help patients gain fat and blood as rapidly as possible, through a rich diet and minimal exertion.
What was the rest cure for men?
A new condition like neurasthenia required a new treatment. The rest cure was a strictly enforced regime of six to eight weeks of bed rest and isolation, without any creative or intellectual activity or stimulation. It was often accompanied by massage and electrotherapy, as well as a fatty diet, rich in milk and meat.
Did Charlotte Perkins Gilman go through the rest cure?
While she had often been melancholy growing up, motherhood and married life pushed Gilman to the edge. She sought treatment for her “nervous prostration” with Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell of Philadelphia and in 1887 took the controversial “Rest Cure,” a treatment that included extensive bed rest, that he had pioneered.
What was the purpose of the bed rest cure?
The rest cure, or bed rest cure, was a 19th-century treatment for many mental disorders, particularly hysteria. “Taking to bed” and becoming an “invalid” for an indefinite period was a culturally accepted response to some of the adversities of life.
Where did the idea of bed rest come from?
As a treatment, bed rest is mentioned in the earliest medical writings. The rest cure, or bed rest cure, was a 19th-century treatment for many mental disorders, particularly hysteria. “Taking to bed” and becoming an “invalid” for an indefinite period was a culturally accepted response to some of the adversities of life.
What to do in place of rest cure?
In the place of Mitchell’s rest cure, Cabot offered a work cure. To treat his patients’ morbid thoughts, he prescribed useful activities: taking a college course, helping manage an office, or taking up pottery or carpentry. Relearning the skills of “healthy people” was the most important tenet of Cabot’s treatment.
What was the first book of the rest cure?
The rest cure gained a much wider acceptance with the publication of Mitchell’s Fat and Blood, the first book-length description of his new therapy. Mitchell continued to write about this treatment in later works such as Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System, Especially in Women (1881) and Doctor and Patient (1887).