Acting Crazy: A Look into Hysteria, the Rest Cure, and Depictions of Mental Illness Through the Lens of the Gender Binary in Literature and Film

In this paper, I explore how the gender binary (defined by Elaine Showalter) allowed for the use of 'hysteria' to be used as a medical diagnosis. I examine the impact of this harsh yet lacking diagnosis and analyze the ways in which predominantly female writers have repurposed the very tools fashioned against them to free themselves from the confines of the gender binary.

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Acting Crazy: A Look into Hysteria, the Rest Cure, and Depictions of Mental Illness Through the Lens of the Gender Binary in Literature and Film

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