[Writing about oneself and others: men and women in letters to doctor Samuel Hahnemann 1831-1835].
Men and women, who wrote as patients to the founder of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann, discussed much more in their letters than only questions of health and illness: A consideration of one's health leaves at the same time an impression of contemporary social structures and discourses. These impressions can be found in self-descriptions as well as in the presentations of others, as the example of a priest writing about his wife demonstrates. However, one has to differentiate between these two ways of writing, since in the end every kind of writing, even in the case of a request for medical advice, says more about the author himself than the subject described. The analysis of two selected discourses leads to the following conclusions: The individual position within the dominant contemporary gender-order was to a lesser extent determined by subversion or acceptance but rather by various entanglements. In addition to that, looking at the concept of homeopathy one can discover, how self-descriptions and the relation to the own body change in the letters over time. The letters are the forum for processes of self-constitutions-- in the sense of a gendered self.
Brockmeyer
Bettina
B
IAG Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Universität Kassel, Mönchebergstr. 21A, 34109 Kassel.
D015709:Correspondence as Topic / Q000266:history*; D005858:Germany; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006705:Homeopathy / Q000266:history*