Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Last week Maud pointed to this article about the Virago reissue of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, her famous novella about postpartum depression and an indictment of the "rest cure" -- really a kind of enforced and complete isolation --  that was prescribed for it in her time. The novella was not well-received by male critics. The Guardian has an excerpt of the introduction to the reissue.

Having been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after Luke stopped breathing when he was about six weeks old -- after that I couldn't hold him or feed him without shaking, couldn't banish images of his funeral from my mind and, worst of all, couldn't let myself sleep for fear that as soon as I closed my eyes, he'd stop breathing again -- I've since become very interested in postpartum mental illnesses, especially now, since a second a baby is on the way. But when I looked for other work by Perkins Gilman on Amazon this morning, what caught my eye was Herland, her book about an utopia inhabited only by women. I can't believe I'd never come across it before. You can read an excerpt on the Amazon site. I just finished Ursula K. LeGuin's The Birthday of the World and, at first glance, Herland looks like it could hold its own.

Comments

[carey]

oh, i love herland. and the yellow wallpaper, for that matter.

[Michele Rosenthal]

This is off the topic (sort of), but you know that PTSD is curable, right?

If you're still experiencing symptoms, come join the healing PTSD workshop that I run at http://parasitesofthemind.blogspot.com. There's also a lot of info about treatment on the site.

There's no reason for you to continue to suffer, especially when the arrival of a new baby should be a time of such joy!

[runescape money]

Great site and I am really pleased to see you have what I am actually looking for here and this post is exactly what I am interested in. I shall be pleased to become a regular visitor