Tag Archives: rest cure

What Could Go Wrong?

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Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

Simple as it was, the rest cure ended up being quite controversial, since the majority of its patients were women. Dr. Mitchell’s theory about the rest cure centered around the belief that women were weak and could be hurt by too much education or stimulation. The nervous exhaustion so prevalent during the late 1800s was a consequence, in his view, of women trying to exceed their natural limitations. In fact, part of the cure involved putting female patients into a state of childlike dependence by forcing them to stay in bed and submit to a nurse’s care for even bathing and eating. (See last post.)

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a writer and early feminist, took Mitchell’s rest cure and was nearly destroyed by it. In her words, she, “came so near the borderline of utter mental ruin that I could see over.” After going home and refusing to follow his advice, Gilman left her marriage and continued to write.

Gilman Believed That Her Short Story Influenced Mitchell to be More Humane

Gilman Believed That Her Short Story Influenced Mitchell to be More Humane

Her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” published in 1913, describes her despair while taking the cure. Virginia Woolf also took a rest cure (though not with Mitchell) and wrote disparagingly of it afterward.

These women, and others, successfully rebelled against the restrictions and paternalism of the rest cure. However, it actually reflected prevailing medical views of the time: that women were frail and needed to do whatever their [male] physicians told them to do.

The Rest Cure

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Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell

Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell

The rest cure was probably the most fashionable of responses to a condition of “nerves” or neurasthenia (see last three posts). Only the wealthy could afford such a complete withdrawal from obligations or work, let alone take on the obvious expenses of accommodations and treatment involved in the cure. Women took the treatment in disproportional numbers from men, but may have been kept out of asylums with its help. Even though some patients deplored this cure, surely it was better for both reputation and psyche than a stay in a madhouse.

Dr. S. Weir Mitchell was the leading authority on treatment through the rest cure, and was highly influential in popularizing it during the late 1800s. The rest cure worked in two ways: like a stay in an asylum, the rest cure took patients out of their homes and isolated them from whatever atmosphere, people, or situation had caused the problem; the cure secondarily worked on their body and mind by keeping patients at rest in a pleasant, cheerful environment.

Patients were literally forced to rest in a bed for six to eight weeks; massage and electrical stimulation helped keep their muscles toned during the enforced inactivity. Patients were washed by nurses, who also fed them a milk-based diet; milk alone might be given for the first week, or raw eggs if a patient couldn’t tolerate milk. Feeding was nearly continuous, and patients could be force-fed if they would not voluntarily down the quantities the staff tried to give them. Sometimes patients were not allowed to read, talk, or enjoy even the most minimally physical amusements. This probably separated the patient who merely wanted a change of pace or sanctioned escape from an unpleasant household situation from patients who truly needed care.

Patient Undergoing Rest Cure

Patient Undergoing Rest Cure

Dr. Mitchell at the Infirmary for Nervous Diseases, Philadelphia, 1902, courtesy National Library of Medicine

Dr. Mitchell at the Infirmary for Nervous Diseases, Philadelphia, 1902, courtesy National Library of Medicine

Insanity a Privileged Disease?

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The Surge in Nervous Diseases Created Interest in the Public

The Surge in Nervous Diseases Created Interest in the Public

Though insanity would never be welcomed by either victims or their families, it was perhaps a comfortable notion to think that it primarily afflicted “civilized” people and nations. Nervous diseases did not affect “savages.” Furthermore, the upper, leisured class could sometimes ascribe their whims, phobias, and “nerves” to their sensitivity and developed intellect, even when the conditions bordered on insanity.

Wealthy women could be dainty, frail, and too refined to bear anything sordid or “common.” They could afford to be highly strung, indulging in hysteria, moodiness, nervousness, and hypochondria.

Men shied away from hysteria, but they could manifest both hypochondria and melancholia without losing respect. People who had these nervous disorders, or neurasthenia, as coined by Dr. George Brown (see last two posts) could go to spas, travel, or take rest cures that might include bed rest, massage, and hearty meals. Sometimes for men, treatment would be vigorous outdoor exercise.

Victorian Woman Fainting of Neurasthenia

Victorian Woman Fainting of Neurasthenia

Though all these conditions caused distress and should not be considered false or amusing in any degree, only the leisured, wealthier class could manage to indulge in them without societal disapproval. A delicate blue-blood who could eat only the daintiest food was acceptable; a factory girl would be expected to eat what she was given.

A wealthy man could afford to be melancholic and withdraw from business or social obligations, whereas a working man would incur only anger or exasperation for the same behavior.

Finally, the wealthy could manifest these somewhat fashionable nervous conditions without acquiring the label of insanity or suffering the trauma of  commitment to an asylum. Because they had the means to help themselves in gentler ways via the advice and services of specialists, they could perhaps cope better with their condition so that it did not become worse, the way it might for a person in poverty and with no ability to get help at the onset of the problem.

Massaging Arm in the Rest Cure, circa 1890

Massaging Arm in the Rest Cure, circa 1890