Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, expert on
nervous diseases, ca. 1900
Charlotte consulted nervous diseases specialist Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell for treatment during her unhappy marriage.
As one of many medical and scientific experts who debated “the woman question,” he defended the notion of significant differences between the sexes and argued that an epidemic of neurasthenia, or nervous exhaustion, was rife among women who attempted to exceed their natural limits.
Courtesy National Library of Medicine
“The man who does not know sick women does not know women”
Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, Doctor and Patient 1887
Excerpt from Charlotte's letter to
Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, requesting treatment and describing her family history, 1887
Courtesy Wisconsin Historical Society
Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, Wear and Tear: Hints for the Overworked, 1871
The disease reflected late nineteenth-century ideas about female weakness, and was used to justify women’s exclusion from schooling, intellectual pursuits, and public life. In one of his classic texts, Mitchell explained how young women could be permanently damaged by over-education. He advocated a cure of complete bed rest and isolation.
Courtesy National Library of Medicine
Dr. S. Weir Mitchell (front, left) at the Infirmary for Nervous Diseases, Philadelphia, 1902
After a month of treatment, Charlotte was sent home to continue the regimen. Far from getting better, she became increasingly distressed and began to fear that the method was bad for her health. She decided to end the rest cure and her marriage.
Courtesy National Library of Medicine
Excerpts from
American Nervousness,
George M. Beard, 1881
Courtesy National Library
of Medicine
Excerpts from Wear
and Tear, or Hints
for the Overworked,
S. Weir Mitchell, 1871
Courtesy National Library
of Medicine
Excerpts from Fat and Blood: And How to Make Them,
S. Weir Mitchell, 1877
