
Mental illness has been around as long as humans have, but the understanding of these illnesses is still a growing field of medicine. In fact, the field of psychiatry was not even a respected field of study until the late 1800’s when the first book of mental illnesses was born (psychiatry.org). Up until that point, many patients were misunderstood when explaining what was wrong with them to their physicians, and were ultimately taken over by their mental illness. Charlotte Perkins Gilman demonstrates the hardships patients of mental illness went through before the mid- 20th century her novel, The Yellow Wallpaper.  Through Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, she highlights the narrowmindedness of physicians due to the lack of knowledge in the field of psychiatry, the misdiagnosis of many patients which was a result of little to no scientific research in the field, and the effect of the most common treatment for mental illness -institutionalization- which resulted in an adverse reaction for many patients. 

In order for a physician to help a patient with a mental illness, it requires the physician to have different perspectives and an open mind, which was unlikely in the 1890s. When the main character describes the house, she is describing herself and her condition. For example, when the windows are mentioned on page 300, the main character explains that her husband “said there was only one window and not room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another” (Gilman).The window represents perspective, and coming from the husband and physician, John, he represents the medical field at the time of the novel, the 1890’s. By there only being one window, there is only one place to look inside or outside of the house. This shows the lack of perspective physician’s had during the 1890’s. Also the description of the small room symbolizes the narrowmindedness of the physicians. Because there was such a lack in scientific research on mental illness, there was not much a physician could do to help someone mentally ill. A typical physician was not going to experiment with someone they though was mentally ill because it could be dangerous. At the time, the view of physicians on mental illness was very narrow. There was little research done into the field of psychiatry, and any studies done were mostly based on opinion rather than concrete scientific evidence. It was not until the mid-20th century that  psychiatric diagnosis were starting to be based on “systematic research” rather than “clinical opinion,” about sixty years after this novel was written (Suris,Holliday,North 3).  With the lack of concrete research to help understand psychiatry, many physicians at the time were stuck with the narrow perspective of psychiatry to diagnosis patients because that is what was respected by other medical professionals in the field. Furthermore, the symbol of the window is further explained when the room the main character stays in, the nursey, is described as “a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore” (Gilman 301). The nursey, a symbol of her brain, is full of sunshine and air, which represents the main characters creativity and ideas. The air and sunlight come from the windows which surround the room, and therefore the creativity and ideas that the main character has come from the many perspectives in which she views the world. In addition, the “big” and “airy” nursey is a symbol of her open mind. The symbol of perspective here is representative of her possible sickness or a symptom of her sickness, multiple personality disorder, MPD. According to a professor at Carleton University, Dr. Nicholas Spanos, “people who enact multiple identities behave as if they possess 2 or more selves, each with its own characteristic moods, memories, and behavioral repertoire” (1). Therefore, the main character’s multiple perspectives come from her multiple personalities. If the main characters physicians had an open mind about psychiatry, he may have listened to his patient when she said she was sick. He could have tapped into her imagination by talking to her, and put himself into her perspective. Instead, he, like many other physicians of the 1890s, stuck to what the medical field respected at the time, and only had that narrow perspective of mental illness.  

Mental illness is a long misunderstood disease, which often went undiagnosed. In the novel, the main character suffers from “temporary nervous depression” and a “slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 300). The main character does not give a specific name to her “sickness” throughout the story, and her husband John, a physician, refuses to admit that she is sick ( Gilman 299). Her husband John is not the enemy, he is one of many physicians trapped in the hole that was psychiatry. For example, the DSM, a book which lists the mental illnesses and symptoms, was the first idea of listing the disorders came out in 1880 there were only seven including “mania, melancholia, monomania, paresis, dementia, dipsomania, and epilepsy”(psychiatry.org). When the novel was written in 1890, physicians were stuck with the seven mental illnesses to diagnose their patients, and even then those diagnosis were what would now be considered not scientifically sufficient, as previously mentioned. This is due to the lack of knowledge and research in the field of psychiatry. Because there was so much knowledge lacking in the field, many, like the main character, suffered their illnesses alone and misunderstood.  If there was a connection between the main character and her husband, the physician, there could have been a chance of recovery. The contrast between perspectives of the main character and her husband symbolize the disconnect between the physician and patient that once existed. The main character insists she is ill, but her husband believes otherwise, and if he thinks she is crazy, he will not believe her when she says she’s sick, or even look into her symptoms any more than what the seven listed illnesses would state. As the patient’s condition worsened, the details of the wallpaper became more apparent to the main a character. She begins to bring the paper to life saying “ it knew the influence it had” on her and that she “never saw so much expression in an inanimate thing before” and that “we all know how much expression they have” (Gilman 302 &304). The yellow wallpaper is the mental illness she suffers from, which is deteriorating her mind and sanity, which is represented by the nursery. Her condition was only worsening, but because there was a misunderstanding between her and her husband about her condition, she was not receiving proper treatment for her condition, which was not properly diagnosed. Unfortunately, the yellow wallpaper eventually came to life taking over the main character like a mental illness would deteriorate a person’s mind which would ultimately end in their demise.  If the main character’s physician connected with her, then he could have been a possibility of gaining a better perspective of what his patient was experiencing. With a better connection, the physician could have better diagnosed his patient and administered better treatment, and would have resulted in a good prognosis.

The lack of knowledge in the field of psychology not only lead to misdiagnosis, but also the wrong treatments for mental illness that lead to the patients’ demise. In the novel, the main character is trapped in her prison like room, which her husband promised “that after the wallpaper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead and then the barred windows, and then the gate at the head of the stairs” (Gilman 302). The description of her room sounds like that of a jail cell or a cell in some kind of institution. John is not the enemy for locking her up. When a patient is suffering a mental illness, they could be a harm to themselves or others, and with no proper diagnosis or treatment available, many patients were “locked up” in a mental hospital. Up until the early 20th century, “asylums were the main form of care for patients with severe mental illness” (Chow & Priebe 1). Due to the lack of knowledge in the field of psychiatry, if the patient did not fit the seven listed mental illnesses and were undiagnosed or misdiagnosed in order to fit a mental illness, they would either receive the wrong treatment or no treatment at all. As the main character explains “but what is one to do” in a situation where there is so much unknown, and safety is at risk, there nothing else but isolate them up until the mid-20th century. Unfortunately as patients were “locked up” in these institutions, they were left with their deteriorating minds, which only caused their condition to worsen. The main character explains how if she was allowed to write, then “it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me” (Gilman 302). Because the character was locked up and unable to let out her feeling s and ideas that flooded her mind from her illness, her condition worsened and by the end of the story she’s seeing things and tearing the room apart.  In a book by Erving Goffman, he explains how “perceived psychiatric hospitals as establishments that shared the same characteristics as prisons, concentration camps and monasteries and argued that patients were subjected to restriction of freedom, suffered from the stigma of being a psychiatric patient and had their normal social roles taken away” (Chow Priebe). And by allowing patients to have their freedom, “more than half a million long-stay patients have been discharged from psychiatric hospitals in the United States and United Kingdom” since the 1950’s (Brown). The main character therefore represents the many patients who were institutionalized for their unknown mental illness. And doctors did not realize that their “treatment” was more of a “mistreatment” which led to the end of many patients. 

The novel, The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman demonstrates the deficit of perspective physicians had about psychiatry and mental health, the lack of knowledge in the field of psychiatry in order to properly diagnose patients, which led to the patients’ receiving the wrong treatment for their illness’ and led to the patient’s demise.  The narrowmindedness of physicians was due to the lack of knowledge in the field of psychiatry. This led to the misdiagnosis of many patients which was also a result of little to no scientific research in the field. In addition, the effect of the most common treatment for mental illness, institutionalization, resulted in an adverse reaction for many patients, and ultimately led to the demise of many patients. The field of psychiatry has grown immensely since the 1890’s, but it is still a growing field of medicine, which stull requires a lot of scientific research. As the field is growing so is the respect for mental illness as a true disease, and more than ever is the talk of mental health been so common. The more research done in the field, the more lives that can be saved, and the tale of The Yellow Wallpaper, will be just a tale, and far from a reality.
