Personally, I would have to state that the characteristics and features I want for my essay aren’t executed properly. For the most part, I wanted my essay to reflect a factual and instructive tone for my audience, which describes two literary texts concerning the mistreatment of hysterical patients and to emphasize the tragedy of the misconduct. I also want to use allusion throughout my essay, so my audience can simply point out the relations of these events to modern-day problems. However, I feel as though my writing was lacking a few pointers that I wanted to portray, such as describing Freud’s conceptual ideas regarding the cause of hysterical symptoms and the various treatments he discovered, and the aforementioned allusion I wanted to elucidate (since I only presented this idea indirectly towards the end of my concluding paragraph). There were many outstanding logical claims Freud mentioned in his lecture that I wanted to reflect on in my writing, that would build-up the amount of accreditation that Freud deserves. For example, Freud’s studies of psychoanalysis made him believe in these mnemic symbols that help trigger episodes and psychic trauma, like Queen Eleanor’s funeral and the Great Fire of 1666 (2206). Although my interpretation and analysis are clearly present in my writing, I think I can deduce more of Freud’s diction and main ideas, even with Gilman’s portrayal of her central ideas. In the end, I’m glad I could make an essay that is of utmost informative and somewhat analytical that reflects Freud and Gilman’s main ideas concerning the conservative mindset and stubbornness.

Another concept I want to mention is the reason why I choose “Patient Abandonment” as my title for my essay since this reflects the exigence and purpose that inspired me to write. In today’s society, patient abandonment is when a doctor decided to terminate his/her relationship with a patient without giving any logical reasonings, and is mostly considered as an illegal matter and can be taken into court. That being said, we take this problem very seriously, since patient neglect (or even failure to provide any essential medical aid) can lead to the conditions of the patient becoming untreatable, fatal, and it may even hinder extensive medical costs. During the early 20th century, patient abandonment is viable to many patients with hysterical conditions, and that causes tragic events to occur. This is evident by Gilman’s experience with her physicist who endorsed the “rest cure” as a form of treatment, such that she claimed that “I went home and obeyed those directions for some three months, and came so near the borderline of utter mental ruin that I could see over” (“Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper”). I personally sympathized with Gilman’s experience with societal expectations of hysterical conditions, and the mistreatment of her mental awareness was a tragedy of itself. This made me think about connections that I would want to demonstrate to my audience about the effects of irrational judgment, eccentric ideology, and humanitarian evolution, metaphorically using Freud’s concepts and Gilman’s experience to create self-awareness in the events of the matter. 

Following the intentions I have, my purpose in writing this essay is to give a clear understanding of what an extremely conservative mindset would do, and the effects it has on many individuals. I feel as though in a medical setting and the title “patient abandonment”, it gives a sense of urgency and seriousness on how impactful these ideas really are. In the context of my essay, I’m trying to advocate a consulting message that demonstrates that we should not let social expectations and traditional mindset dictate what we should and shouldn’t do. Since our knowledge is quickly expanding, our social goals and expectancies should progress with it as well. I also want to mention how a summary and response media is appropriate for my message because I wanted to further elucidate Freud and Gilman’s literary texts, by giving a summary and analysis of what they’re trying to say, in response to my thesis. This would also correlate with the audience I want my essay to reach, such that I want a potential audience who are strong-willed and educated individuals who are aware of the circumstances of our society, and who can take it a step further and advocate change. 

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.