The Rest Cure and Medical Patriarchy

From The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Gilman's autobiographical critique of S. Weir Mitchell's rest cure prescription, which forbade intellectual work and prescribed enforced inactivity to nervous women.
Early section

"So I take phosphates or phosphites -- whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to 'work' until I am well again." The rest cure regimen itemized.

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Middle section

"John says if I don't pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall." The direct naming of the real physician Gilman herself was treated by.

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