The Rest Cure: A Doctor's Prescription for HysteriaHow a 19th-century treatment tried to cure 'over-thinking'.
From the show
Historically Bad AdviceDiscover a Victorian-era medical treatment that prescribed total inactivity for women's 'nervous exhaustion'. The 'rest cure' involved complete isolation, overfeeding, and enforced bed rest, supposedly to calm an overstimulated female mind. This controversial therapy, famously depicted in "The Yellow Wall-paper," reveals how medical advice was used to enforce social control and stifle intellectual women.
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