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The "rest cure" is promoted as a new form of healing.

Date: 1860

MHP
MED
GEND

Silas Weir Mitchell, a neurologist, focuses his work on the "condition" of "hysteria." He advises the "rest cure," which literally means "to rest," along with removing the patient from their environment. Patients are asked to write down their life history, use exercise and electrical stimulation, and to follow a nutritious diet. He postulates a physical relationship to "hysteria" via his anecdotal observations of "hysterical" women as more often being thin and anemic.