Article ID: CBB726473206

The ‘secret’ source of ‘female hysteria’: the role that syphilis played in the construction of female sexuality and psychoanalysis in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (2017)

unapi

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the unspoken fear of syphilis played a significant role in the development of beliefs about female sexuality. Many women were afraid of sexual relationships with men because they feared contracting syphilis, which was, at that time, untreatable. Women also feared passing this disease on to their children. Women’s sexual aversion, or repression, became a focus for Freud and his colleagues, whose theory of psychosexual development was based on their treatment of women. This article examines the case of Dora, the memoirs of Mabel Dodge Luhan and other sources to argue that the fear of syphilis was a significant factor in upper- and middle-class women’s avoidance of heterosexual relationships. The fear of syphilis, in turn, became a significant factor in the psychoanalytic construction of female sexuality. The social suppression of the fear of syphilis has had a profound impact on theories of women’s development. The implication for psychiatry is that our models of psychological development occur within a sociocultural milieu and cannot escape suppressed aspects of our culture.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB726473206/

Similar Citations

Book Daniela Finzi; Herman Westerink; (2018)
Dora, Hysteria, and Gender: Reconsidering Freud's Case Study (/isis/citation/CBB012685507/)

Article Cryle, Peter; Downing, Lisa; (2009)
Feminine Sexual Pathologies (/isis/citation/CBB001030574/)

Thesis Secil Yilmaz; (2016)
Love in the Time of Syphilis: Medicine and Sex in the Ottoman Empire, 1860-1922 (/isis/citation/CBB845578414/)

Book Scull, Andrew T.; (2009)
Hysteria: The Disturbing History (/isis/citation/CBB001251287/)

Book Paulo Drinot; (2020)
The Sexual Question: A History of Prostitution in Peru, 1850s–1950s (/isis/citation/CBB330483529/)

Thesis Reinhard, Diana T.; (2008)
Bodies on Display: Gender, Sexuality, and the Visual Culture of American Medicine, 1870--1920 (/isis/citation/CBB001561227/)

Article Santos, Fabiane Vinente dos; (2007)
Sexualidade e civilização nos trópicos: gênero, medicina e moral na imprensa de Manaus (1895--1915) (/isis/citation/CBB000831574/)

Article Maria Innocenza Runco; (2019)
Hysteria in Music and on the Stage (/isis/citation/CBB917990331/)

Book McGough, Laura J.; (2011)
Gender, Sexuality, and Syphilis in Early Modern Venice: The Disease That Came to Stay (/isis/citation/CBB001033520/)

Article Cotti, Patricia; (2008)
Freud and the Sexual Drive before 1905: From Hesitation to Adoption (/isis/citation/CBB000850782/)

Article John Jarrell; Frank W. Stahnisch; (2021)
Contextualizing ovarian pain in the late 19th century — Part 2: Ovarian-based treatments of “hysteria” (/isis/citation/CBB149729279/)

Article Kauders, Anthony D.; (2013)
Truth, Truthfulness, and Psychoanalysis: The Reception of Freud in Wilhelmine Germany (/isis/citation/CBB001212922/)

Thesis Rothe, Johanna; (2014)
Psychoanalysis, Sexuality, and Nationality in Late Habsburg Austria (/isis/citation/CBB001567601/)

Authors & Contributors
Yilmaz, Secil
Baron, Beth
Jarrell, John
Runco, Maria Innocenza
Finzi, Daniela
Rothe, Johanna
Concepts
Sexuality
Medicine and gender
Hysteria
Medicine
Psychoanalysis
Women and health
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
Renaissance
20th century
Places
Netherlands
Germany
France
Europe
Peru
United States
Institutions
Habsburg, House of
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment