Summary & Response

Mental health in today’s society is given a widespread attention, today there is medication, therapy, and doctors that can treat mental problems such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. The discovery of mental health better known as “Hysteria” had left doctors with confusion, and disbelief of the sickness. Many doctors had their judgments and motives towards these hysterical patients. But, Sigmund Freud in his first lecture of his, “Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis” exploits these doctors of their attitudes and recognizes Dr. Breuer for his different perspective on hysteria. Freud exploits doctors of having careless and ignorant attitudes towards hysterical patients and in the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlette Perkin Gilman it illustrates the opinions Freud has.

In the first lecture, Sigmund Freud exploits the careless and ignorant attitudes the doctors had towards hysterical patients. He starts about expressing the idea of hysteria and how it was viewed to the eyes of doctors. “He cannot understand hysteria, and in the face of it, he is himself a layman. So, it comes about that hysterical patients forfeit his sympathy. He regards them as people who are transgressing the laws of his science – like heretics in the eyes of the orthodox. He attributes every kind of wickedness to them, accuses them of exaggeration, of deliberate deceit, of malingering. And he punishes them by withdrawing his interest from them.’’ (Freud 2201). This quote goes to show the ignorance they had, due to the doctor’s lack of knowledge he Nadeem just accuses the patients of exaggeration and going against science. On the Contrary, Freud had a different approach when it came to Dr. Breuer’s attitude toward hysterical patients because Breuer showed interest and tried to understand the patients.” Dr. Breuer’s attitude towards his patient deserved no such reproach. He gave her both sympathy and interest, even though, to begin with, he did not know how to help her.” (Freud 2200). This quote displays that even though Dr. Breuer didn’t know what to do he still showed interest and showed the patient sympathy, so they don’t feel alone.

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” illustrates the idea of the doctors being careless and ignorant when it came to hysterical patients. Going back to Freud the doctors had no answer, so their solution was to leave the hysterical patients where they were, the rest cure. Which is what the main character in the “TYW” experiences, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s husband, assures friends and relatives that there is nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency – what is one to do?” (648). In this quote, it goes to show the main characters husbands’ ignorance of getting a better understanding of his wife’s illness. Instead, of getting deeper into it he just claims its temporary depression and tells everyone else she is fine, so he avoids people questioning his knowledge. If a man can’t take care of his own wife, why would someone want to be treated by him. In, “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper” published by Charlette she goes into her why in making the “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Charlette’s purpose was to address her hysteria, which also connects back to Freud’s point of doctors being ignorant. “This wise man put me to bed and applied the rest cure…I went home and obeyed those directions for some three months and came so near the borderline of utter mental ruin that I could see over.” (Gilman). The doctor just said what every other doctor was Nadeem saying which is rest cure and he didn’t seem to care about what it would have led to which was her hysteria getting even worse.

Freud’s attitude towards the doctors wasn’t pleasurable. He exposed them of their carelessness and ignorance which could be seen in “The Yellow Wallpaper” with the main character suffering from the ignorance of her husband. Also, in “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper”, where Charlette Perkins Gilman explains to her own experience with her hysteria which is quite the same as her character in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. We have come a long way in understanding mental illness and it couldn’t have been done without Freuds, “Five Lectures of Psychoanalysis” introducing the illness to many.

Group Work on “A Guide to Writing a Thesis”

In this article, Umberto Eco gave a whole new persona on how to write a thesis. The article displays many different aspects for a person who hasn’t taken into consideration for writing an essay.

Purpose is why and the reason the writer is writing that specific topic for their writing piece. If it doesn’t have a purpose, then the whole thing won’t make sense for the audience. It’s also the aim that the writer presents. Setting a purpose means explaining to your readers on how you feel and will be able to express them throughout the piece of writing. The purpose sets the story right and creates an understanding visual picture for the audience.

Audience is who the writer is intending to write to. When any author is writing something, it’s always good to have a specific group of people that they want to refer to. Being specific will help the audience interpret the authors writing piece better by using their emotions. It’s always important to have an interesting idea and statement present in your writing because then it catches the audience’s attention and makes them want to continue reading it.

Genre is the type of paper you are writing is the genre. For example, it could be a letter, report, a manual book, and even just a parody. Choosing the genre changes the different straggles that will be needed for your paper. The genre changes the tone, how you talk, and different design aspects of your paper. The genre of a paper is the reason why so many papers are so diverse.

Stance is when you write a paper, you always have a stance on your topic, your stance is what is going to give your paper its purpose. The purpose and stance should blend together, it could be a positive stance or negative stance. The stance will play a role in how the audience of your writer reacts to your paper.

Media/design is how you choose to present your ideas. Whether it is formal or informal. For example, a formal idea would be presented as a report, essay, or as a written. informal ideas would be presented as text messages, notes, and even a blogpost. Formal ideas tend to be very punctual with little to no grammar errors, while informal ideas are made quite the opposite. Design is how you display your ideas. Its whether you add images, props, or even how the words are written (like bolding/italicizing words).

Exigence is the issue, situation, or problem that inspired someone to write. For example, if the writer is writing about climate change, the exigence is climate change. Exigence give writers a reason to explain their ideas.