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American Women Writers Narrating Medicine and Psychology, 1890-1930

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American Women Writers Narrating Medicine and Psychology, 1890-1930 View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ASU Digital Repository The Female Patient: American Women Writers Narrating Medicine and Psychology, 1890-1930 by Kerri Slatus A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Approved April 2016 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Deborah Clarke, Chair Marlene Tromp Christine Holbo ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY May 2016 ABSTRACT The Female Patient: American Women Writers Narrating Medicine and Psychology 1890-1930 considers how American women writers, including Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Zelda Fitzgerald, Sarah Orne Jewett, Edith Wharton, and Gertrude Stein, use the novel form to examine medical culture during and after the turn of the 20th century. These authors insert the viewpoint of the woman patient to expose problematics of gendered medical relationships, women’s roles in medicine, and the complexities of the pre- Freudian medical environment. In doing so, the goal of revising medicine's dominant narratives and literature's role in that objective can be achieved. The focus on the female patient in women's literature of this period additionally connects the topic of illness with that of modernism. Authors using the voice and subjectivity of the woman patient refigure perspectives of normalized conceptions of women’s social experience. More than illness and health as general subjects, these authors focus on the experience of the body through the doctor-patient relationship, moving more fully into direct viewpoints of the male gaze and its impact upon women’s physical and mental health. In the texts in question, women are disempowered but also enter into newly complex relationships with their bodies that end in new and sometimes positive realizations. This further aids the project of considering and revising the dominant narratives of the masculine; women’s view of medicine allows them to change representations of themselves and the way men categorize them. Utilizing historical record and sociocultural theorizing, this dissertation presents the five women authors as essential in creating new narratives of modernity and ways of understanding medical experience during this time. i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Without the support of family, friends, and colleagues this project would not have been possible. I would especially like to thank my husband for his unwavering support throughout this process, in allowing me to pursue my goals for the past eight years throughout my graduate work. My gratitude is unending. My family has also encouraged me to continue in my goal of remaining within the university, and achieving whatever I set my mind to. They have continuously expressed their pride in my endeavors, and I am eternally thankful. Without my wonderful committee, this project would also have never come to fruition. Beginning with the help of Deborah Clarke, who sparked many of my initial ideas and encouraged this project forward, and continuing with the dedicated support and commitment from Christine Holbo, I have been able to complete this project and have been shaped as a scholar on the road to bigger and better things. I consider them both my mentors and my inspiration for future success. Marlene Tromp has provided unending enthusiasm for my project, and her helpful commentary along the way has been of the utmost help. The ASU English department has my gratitude for allowing me the chance to be a part of the department and achieve my goal of a doctorate. To my graduate colleagues and friends, the ability to collaborate, complain, and discuss any and all things related to this project and throughout our program has been one of the most necessary and appreciated outlets during this whole process. Without an amazing cohort of colleagues who I call friends, I would never have made it through. Thank you all. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER Page INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 1 THE MODERNIST WOMAN’S VOICE: SEEKING AUTHORSHIP THROUGH ILLNESS FOR CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN AND ZELDA FITZGERALD .................................................................................... 31 2 NAVIGATING THE (MIND)FIELD: GENDER, PSYCHOLOGY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICAL PRACTICES OF THE 1890S IN SARAH ORNE JEWETT’S THE COUNTRY OF THE POINTED FIRS ..... 80 3 ‘STRANGE FUTURES’: ADDICTION, AUTONOMY AND MODERNIZING MEDICAL CULTURE IN EDITH WHARTON’S THE HOUSE OF MIRTH .............................................................................................. 128 4 CASE STUDIES IN GENDER, ECONOMICS, AND RACE IN GERTRUDE STEIN’S THREE LIVES .................................................................. 181 CONCLUSION ................... .................................................................................... 233 REFERENCES....... ............................................................................................................ 245 iii INTRODUCTION An 1883 advertisement for Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound declared the remedy was a cure for “all those painful Complaints and Weaknesses so common to our best female population” and promised it would “at all times and under all circumstances act in harmony with the laws that govern the female system.” 1 By 1883, the business was quite successful; women appeared to trust Pinkham and bought her product in vast quantities. In actuality, the famed remedy had as its main ingredient a large quantity of alcohol.2 When she first began the company, Pinkham responded personally to each letter of inquiry about her product, dispensing directions for its use as well as general medical and lifestyle advice to women across the United States. Pinkham was a kindly neighbor, medical advisor and protopsychiatrist; she would have labeled herself a Puritan and an herbalist. In addition to testimonials and correspondence, Pinkham’s company published pamphlets and whole treatises on medical matters.3 One booklet entitled “Treatise on the Diseases of Women” notes that women are the best source for understanding other women’s pain: What does a man know about the thousand and one aches and pains peculiar to a woman? He may have seen manifestations of suffering, he may have read something about these things in books, but that is all. Even though he might be 1 This was a common text of the advertisement, and similar variations appear in newspapers and other periodicals across the United States at this time. This particularly reference, which has this exact text quoted, is from the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe/Harvard, printed in 1883 and given as a postcard with a picture of the ‘great East River suspension bridge’ on the reverse, a symbol of progress and civilization. 2 Alcohol as main ingredient in patent medicines, including Pinkham’s, is discussed in A. Walker Bingham’s text The Snake Oil Syndrome. In Sarah Stage’s Female Complaints about Pinkham, the company claimed the alcohol, 18%, was only used to preserve the ingredients, and no woman would drink a whole bottle. 3 Pinkham wrote the letters herself until her death in 1883, and after this, women were still encouraged to write to ‘Mrs. Pinkham’. She received in one year, according to Elbert Hubbard’s biased biography, “one hundred thousand letters” (30) and each received a personal reply, with medical advice. See Edd Applegate, The Rise of Advertising in the United States. 1 exceedingly learned in the medical profession, yet what more can he know aside from that which the books teach? Did a man ever have a backache like the dragging, pulling, tearing ache of a woman? No. It is impossible (3). Despite Pinkham’s dubious credibility as a patent medicine manufacturer, this statement holds merit. Pinkham accesses a key concern for women: their role within the medical environment and their status as patients. As Pinkham notes, though physicians are “exceedingly learned in the medical profession” they are confined to “that which the books teach.” Pinkham addresses this deficiency with her product, aimed at women who would rather look for solutions to their medical concerns in their own medicine cabinets or from other women rather than physicians. The offer of privacy, too, allowed women to remove themselves from a physician’s view and authority. Pinkham offered comfort from pain, but more importantly, understanding of a woman’s perspective and specific needs. The field of medicine was complex for women patients during the period of 1890- 1930. This complexity is evidenced in the multiple forces and approaches occurring at once and in varying directions in the field, many of which were believed to be in the name of forward progress, and thus, aligned with modernity. Physicians looked increasingly to empirical research to decode the prevalence of certain illnesses, particularly nervous illness. The town physician making house calls was gradually replaced by the scientifically-oriented practitioner. Power was slowly centralized by these physicians who created a guild-like society for the elite man with a medical degree. Beyond this, patent medicines and other alternative methods were a significant force, particularly movements such as Christian Science. These self-treatment protocols or alternative methodologies away from physicians’ control were popular at the same time that the elite doctor held increasing amounts of power and knowledge. By 1930, new 2 somatic methods became status quo while Freudian psychoanalysis was also enlisted as
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