The Absent Mother in King Lear
The Main Ideas of Day One
Women are inherently Hysterical
Symptoms include epilepsy, aphasia, numbness, and lethargy
- Kahn proposed 'cures' for womanly hysteria include sex and potions
Maternal Subtext
- mother is always there even when she is not physically there
Psychoanalysis
- Women learned how to mothers based on watching their own mothers while men learned how to be masculine in contrast to their mothers' femininity.
- Oedipus complex
The Talking Cure
- people suffering from hysteria talking about what bothered them
- have patient talk about dreams, feelings, memories which would help get a better understanding of their mental and physical problems
- physical symptoms were representations of unconscious mental conflict
The Concept of the Wandering Womb
- Metaphor for feelings and needs associated with women
- Some believed lack of sex or failure to reproduce caused the womb to 'wander' within a woman's body causing a range of hysterical symptoms.