In the 1800-1900’s, mental hysteria in relation to the female body, such as mensuration and pregnancy, was viewed as a “grey area”. In relation to criminal authority, there was convincing evidence that correlated the hysterical actions of women to menstruation, pregnancy, and child-birth. The general repercussions were being admitted into either an insane asylum or in severe cases, women were thrown into prison. Today, premenstrual syndrome is not a strong argument in legal defenses in the United States, however, in other countries, case-by-case situations get away with it. It is assumed that premenstrual syndrome will remain controversial as our world of medicine evolves and we begin to understand more of the psychiatric side of crimes. In early medicine (1800-1900’s), there were many scientific misconceptions of the correlation and effects of pregnancy to mental illness.  “The Yellow Wallpaper”, “Criminal insanity in 19th-century Ireland, Europe and the United States: Cases, contexts and controversies”, and “Dangerous Pregnancies: Mothers, Disabilities, and Abortion in Modern America” reveal the lack of knowledge of physicians and scientists when it comes to pregnancy, mensuration, and PMSing in relation to mental illnesses during the 1800-1900’s, which is important because it gives us a basis for understanding the way that we portray women. 

Many women in the 19th century were accused of being a dangerous threat to society because of mood swings. A quote from the first article that I found is, “In all civilized communities, ancient or modern, insanity has been regarded as exempting from punishment of crime, and under some circumstances at least, as vitiating the civil acts of those who are affected with it. The only difficulty, or diversity of opinion, consists in determining who are really insane, in the meaning of the law...” (Ray, 1853; p. 2). International Journal of Law and Psychiatry was published in November-December 2009. The journal excerpt, “Criminal insanity in 19th-century Ireland, Europe and the United States: Cases, contexts and controversies” was written by Bredan D. Kelly. In the 19th Century, the diagnosis for mental illnesses was not clear and straightforward. In the journal, there is a comparison of The United States, Ireland, and Europe in relation to the mentally ill (specifically women), asylums, and the emergence of insanity. Women especially were targeted as a result of menstruation and PSM-ing. Mood swings were viewed as a form of hysteria and as a result, women were viewed as a dangerous threat to society. For example, one woman threw her stillborn infant out of the house, which is reasonable to assume in the 19th-century that the woman was hysterical or a lunatic (Kelly 366). 

Corresponding to the previous paragraph, during the 19th-Century, the treatment after giving birth was called a “resting period”. This was a three-month time span in which a woman who just gave birth, was required to lay in bed and rest.  It was said that the woman exerted too much brain power and physical strength during the pregnancy, so she needed three months of rest (Kelly 366). The ideas behind medical theories in the journal and “The Yellow Wallpaper” correlate in the fact that pregnancy was said to affect the mental stability of a woman. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author of “The Yellow Wallpaper” uses evidence within her writing that supports the mental hysteria that the woman is going through after she delivered her baby. As a result of her psychotic behavior, it is reasonable to assume that the woman is actually staying in a mental asylum, instead of a “nursey” (Gilman 310). Because of the loss of hormones after giving birth, many women go through post-partum. This side-effect is serious and cause hormonal imbalances. Many women have major mood swings and fall into depression. During the 19th-century, people would have categorized someone with post-partum as a lunatic, sending them to a mental asylum.  “Criminal insanity in 19th-century Ireland, Europe and the United States: Cases, contexts and controversies” provides an example of pregnancy affecting mental stability. A woman by the name, Ms. C got pregnant by a man of whom she was not married to. She had the baby, but when it was born as a stillborn, she ended up throwing the baby out of the house (Kelly, 2009). This example allows me to provide an extensive analysis on how the results of pregnancy would have been portrayed as a mental illness during the 19th-century (Kelly 366). This allows me to connect the hysterical behaviors coming from Ms. C to the similar behaviors of the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. 

Next, a mental standpoint comes from the second digital print, “…pregnant women today are…, “moral pioneers” (Reagan 5). “The ambiguities, confusion, distress, and hard thinking of pregnant women today and the politics of amniocentesis and abortion are extensions of what pregnant women faced in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s when they suspected that they had contracted German measles” (Reagan, 5). In “Dangerous Pregnancies: Mothers, Disabilities, and Abortion in Modern America”, written by Leslie J. Reagan in 2010, reflects on the 1960’s era of Women’s Rights. Pregnancy was viewed as a high risk during this time period in fear of contracting the German measles. Because pregnant women had to make life altering decisions for their babies, the issue of mental distress set in. “Woman may know of severe conditions that will cause her child to die soon after birth, the fetus may have already died, or the pregnancy may threaten her own life” (Reagan, 5) is an example of what could cause a woman to fall into a category of a mental illness. 

In relation to mental illness, the reason that so many misdiagnosis of a mentally insane person happened was because of the lack of understanding and the refusal to discover other possibilities. If the knowledge of hormonal imbalance had been a known factor at the time, the approach to solving emotional outburst would have looked much different. Instead, during the 1800-1900’s, asylums were used as a means of containing the inappropriate display of emotions. With pregnancy comes a lot of natural emotional and physical distress. Physicians (and husbands) did not grasp the physical strains on a women’s body and mind. A simple fix during this time would have been one as stated in the following quote from “Dangerous Pregnancies: Mothers, Disabilities, and Abortion in Modern America”, “Observing the body, analyzing symptoms, sharing knowledge, and sharing bodies and ideas with physicians and researchers for the development of science were not simple byproducts of maternal responsibility to care for family health” (Reagan, 24). In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, we see a specific example of a woman suffering from post-partum symptoms, which could have been targeted if physicians had taken the time to analyze possibly why the patient was acting out after going through the emotional and physical distress of giving birth (Gilman 311). If there had been any complications during the birth, then that would have extra hardships on the mother when considering her child’s life and health. 

Finally, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, tells a story of a woman that was specifically influenced by pregnancy, which in the time period that it was written, would have seemed abnormal behavior (Gilman 299-312). The two references above correlate to “The Yellow Wallpaper” in the way that society handles woman’s action and reactions from a bodily change. This story is an affective example to use when relating the time period to the so-called “lunatic” reactions from women after pregnancy or mensuration. The fact that the woman’s own husband was her physician and still considered her mentally ill, furthers the discussion that the authorities were not just trained inhuman characters, but rather, this concept of mentally ill was distributed throughout the general society. 

In conclusion, many argue about who has the final say over a child’s well-being and health- is it the mother or is it the authoritative legal figure (i.e. physician)? Diagnosing criminal/lunatic behavior during the 1800-1900’s was sadly a clear left and right diving line. If a woman acted out in any way that society saw as inappropriate or rash, then she was either sent into seclusion or to an asylum (Kelly 365). However, in today’s society, if a woman displays the same behavior, it is proven that a majority of the time, it’s a result of a hormonal imbalance and a woman may be scolded for such behaviors, but never taken into extreme measures, such as being sent to a mental institution. As scientist discovered more evidence towards biological reasons for such behaviors instead of habits (such as in “The Yellow Wallpaper”), the rates of extreme control situations decreased and has evolved into the society that we know today (Dangerous Pregnancies: Mothers, Disabilities, and Abortion in Modern America).  
