Early nineteenth-century America witnessed social
change which significantly altered the structure of human
relationships. Out of this transformation came new
configurations of gender and sexuality which colored
relations between the sexes well into the twentieth century.
But these gender prescriptions did not merely serve to
pattern male/female interactions, they informed the
Victorian America male self-concept as well. As this study
will demonstrate, men born and raised in the middle of the
nineteenth century were bombarded with a masculine ethos
which would permeate their personal and professional lives.
This study focuses particularly upon men who entered
the medical profession. More specifically, this is an
investigation of those practitioners who took up
psychotherapy in the course of conducting their medical
practice. Overall, the thesis will show that gender roles
did indeed influence medical professionals in the
investigation and treatment of hysteria in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century.
The first chapter is an overview of the issues to be
addressed in the thesis. The formal study begins in the
second chapter with an examination of the construction of
gender roles in nineteenth-century America. The third
chapter summarizes the development of the professions and
the subsequent ascent of medicine. The process of
professionalization created a reciprocal relationship
between medical science and the broader culture by which the
medical practitioners of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century achieved an unprecedented status. As the
mediators between medical knowledge and society,
practitioners based their scientific opinions directly upon
their congenial view of the world. The fourth chapter
explores the therapeutic encounter centered upon hysteria.
The hysteria malady, closely linked with femininity over the
sweep of its long history, provided physicians with a
diagnosis that allowed them to discourse on social concerns
about gender difference in general, and about the
troublesome nature of women in particular. Finally, the
fifth chapter traces the introduction of psychoanalysis into
the American psychotherapeutic scene. As a form of
psychotherapy taken up by a small group of practitioners
interested in psychological theories of illness and healing,
psychoanalysis was gradually adopted and then modified to suit the needs of American professionals who continued to be
guided by ideas of masculinity forged in Victorian America. / Graduation date: 1996
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/34993 |
| Date | 10 May 1996 |
| Creators | Misso, Brent W. |
| Contributors | Nye, Robert |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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