Before reading The Yellow Wallpaper, it is important for the reader to understand the way the mental health of women was viewed and treated during the 19th century when the story was written. Two articles that I analyzed are, Diagnosing Difficult Women and Pathologising Femininity: Gender Bias in Psychiatric Nosology and Lunacy in the 19th Century: Women’s Admission to Asylums in United States of America in order to gain more information about the history of womens mental illnesses and their admittence in asylums. In The Yellow Wallpaper, a wife is placed into an asylum where her husband works as a psychologist. She was forced into this asylum by her husband due to her postpartum depression. The first historical article was written by Jane M Ussher from the University of Western Sydney, Australia. The purpose of the article is to classify the disorders of mental illness in women throughout the course of history, specifically in the 16th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. I focused on the section written about the diagnosis of hysteria and neurasthenia, two common names that physicians of the time gave these diseases. The second article, written by Katherine Pouba and Ashley Tianen, also gives information about the mental illnesses of women. However, this article focuses more on the lack of rights that women had on their own mental health and the symptoms that qualified women to be sent to these mental institutions. Both of these articles contain benificial history of the late 19th century that readers should be knowlageable of before reading The Yellow Wallpaper.

I read the article, Diagnosing Difficult Women and Pathologising Femininity: Gender Bias in Psychiatric Nosology in order to get a better idea of what the wife in The Yellow Wallpaper’s diagnosis could have been from psychologsits of the time. One part of the article focuses on two types of mental illnesses and the differences and similarities between the two. It also points out that mental illness was one of the most common diagnosis for females during the 19th century. Knowing the differences in the way physicians labeled their patients conditions during this time gave me a better understanding of how their diagnosis contributed to their unfair treatment. Women are referred to as “difficult women” in the text by male psychologists, showing us the gap between genders during this time. The author talks about the fact that men were rarely given the diagnosis of these medical illnesses and therefore it was a diagnosis that was most commonly given to women. The first mental illness mentioned is hysteria. Patients with this disorder are seen by physicians as “evil”, “manipulative”, overdramatic, and seeking attention. A physician of the time, named Silas Weir Mitchell, is quoted in the article when he compares a woman with hysteria to a “’vampire who sucks the blood of the healthy people around her’”. In this story, the wife suffering from postpartum depression is placed into an asylum where her husband John works. The woman in The Yellow Wallpaper says “John says if I don’t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell.” This psychiatric doctor is the same one in the article who compared women with hysteria to vampires, allowing us to see why John’s wife would be afraid after hearing this based on how Weir and other pychologists talked of “hysterics”. This is John’s way of telling her she cannot go from her current state into a “hysteric” one. John see’s his wife’s condition as what he describes as “a temporary nervous depression,” which is a very common description of the disease neruatsthenia. This diagnosis was used in a much lighter on as compated with hysteria and given to those patients that they believed were not nearly as ill as those diagnosed as hysteric. We can see how the wife’s behavior changed from the beginning to end, going from exhibiting signs of postpartum depression to later developing signs of a mental illness. These “nervous” symptoms were just her depression after having her child. This article on doctor’s identification of womens mental diseases allowed me to see the doctors during this time’s course of diagnosis and treatment compares to the woman in the storys. 

In The Yellow Wallpaper, the wifes admittance into the mental hospital was not up to her and she was forced into the hospital by her husband. The article, Lunacy in the 19th Century: Women’s Admission to Asylums in United States of America, describes how women held “dismal” positions in not only their work but their marriages and relationships as well. It points out that there were very few laws in place to protect womens rights, and that they were not often enforced. The article quotes one law that states, ““Whether man places her on a level with himself or estimates her merely as his slave still there must be legislation in respect of her, if not for her, still she must be protected”(Davis, 1854, p. 2).”” The article includes medical files from the Mendota Medical Asylum from 26 women who were admitted by their husbands to focus on the rate of women that were forced into asylums by their husbands and the symptoms they posessed. Two of the most common reasons for admittance was for disagreements in religion and mensturation. The author describes one admitted woman named Elizabeth Packyard, who was sent in by her husband against her own will. Since she was in disagreement with her husbands religious beliefs, the mother of six was sent out of the house and labeled as “crazy.” This article describes how many situations like this occurred when women were admitted by their husbands. The wife in the Yellow Wallpaper was sent by her husband as well and although she stated she wanted to leave, her opinion did not matter. She was lied to by her husband about where they actually were several times and made to believe she would benefit from this house. These women who were admitted to Mendota Medical Asylum were similarly mistreated by their husbands and forced into it. 

The story of The Yellow Wallpaper can be understood a lot easier by understanding the historical background of the time period. It is important for the reader to understand the rate that women were sent to asylums as well as the common disgnosis that they were given by psychologist of the time. It is also important to see how psychologists classified different diseases. The wife in the story was diagnosed very similarly to one of the diseases mentioned in the article, and it gave me a better idea as to why they believed certain women needed to be admitted for these symptoms. Both of these articles can be very beneficial to the reader in understanding The Yellow Wallpaper better. 
