1748
PhD thesis of Marc Lemort Demétigny
First recorded use of the word "psycho-somatic", in his PhD thesis featuring "ideas which are certainly not common", to quote a contemporary reviewer.
(Of course, the concept of body/mind interactions, and indeed the holistic approach reaches back thousands of years across various cultures.)
1953
South African Medical Journal Volume 27, Issue 36
"The Problem of Lower Abdominal Pain in Women"; one of the first clinical speculations as to the psycho-somatic nature of "women's issues".
In reviewing the efficacy of invasive procedures of the day, Johnson concludes that "about two-thirds of these patients could have been helped by common-sense advice and by teaching the patient to live with herself. The other third could have been helped by psychiatrists."
1960
Newsweek Volume 55, Issue 10
Special Science Report by Edwin Diamond: Young Wives
This article puts forth symptoms that resonate deeply with modern expat wives, such as
- having everything while feeling empty
- struggling with their own self worth, and
- a husband that prioritises his career:
"A good education, it seems, has given this [woman] an understanding of the value of everything except her own worth."
"[Businessmen], especially the rising young executives who commute, have become 'overnight guests and weekend visitors' in their own homes. ''Women love men and men love their work,'' the aphorism goes."
1963
The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan
In her book, credited with "kicking off the second wave of feminism", Friedan dissects "the disenchantment syndrome" after reframing it "the problem that has no name"; and which would later be labelled "the housewife's disease".
(Valium came onto the market in this same year. Inextricably intertwined with the housewife narrative, that topic is much too complex to tackle here.
Cf. the 2010 entry, below, though)
1964
South African Medical Journal Volume 38, Issue 25
Housewife's Disease - a Modern Psychosomatic Syndrome
"Housewife's disease [...] can have serious implications for the health, happiness and indeed stability of the individual [if] the wife and mother of the family drifts into a state of confusion and demoralization, with regard to both her mental and physical qualities."
2010
The Milbank Quarterly Volume 88, Issue 1
How an Age of Anxiety Became an Age of Depression
Depression diagnoses have skyrocketed over the last 60-odd years, through perhaps not due to actual changes in our mental health:
"Before the 1970s, depression was understood as a rare condition. It suggested obsession with death, feelings of utter meaninglessness, and even psychosis. If a person was diagnosed with a psychological problem in the 1950s or 1960s based on anything from sadness to odd sleeping patterns to interpersonal stress, it was likely to be called anxiety. [...]
When the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-III) came out in 1980, it made it far easier to diagnose a patient with major depressive disorder (MDD) than an anxiety condition."
Today
Expat Wife Whispering
Let's make things better, much much better
It is tempting to comment upon the struggles of the housewives of earlier eras, trying to draw parallels, to explore the therapeutic approaches of the day even, perhaps. None of that gets us any closer to a solution, though. If you have recognised yourself in parts of this timeline:
No matter your current situation, there is no shame in being exactly where you are. But it would be a shame to just stay there. Talk to Me.