Elise’s Reviews > Pain and Prejudice > Status Update

Huh. New context on the character of Mrs Bennet. 🤔

“…Enlightenment doctors had genuine sympathy for their patients, not least because they were gleaned from the rich and famous […], the ‘victims of an interestingly delicate nervous system buckling under the pressures of civilisation.’ […] Madness was still a personal failing, but hysteria was a sign of accomplishment.

In naming hysteria a disease of civilisation, what Sydenham meant was the richer a person was, the more demanding life was, and so the more likely they were to become hysterical. He believed the social conditions that enslaved women caused inner turmoil that resulted in physical illness—an observation ahead of its time.