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"Strong Passions of the Mind": Representations of Emotions and Women's Reproductive Bodies in Seventeenth-Century England

Johnson, Erin, Johnson
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1427-446X
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1531759449299599

Abstract Details

2018, Master of Arts, Miami University, History.
This thesis examines the ways in which early modern medical texts presented the mind-body connection as it impacted child-bearing women in seventeenth century England. The medieval rediscovery of ancient Greek medical knowledge dominated understandings of health and healing for centuries but reached its widest audiences with the explosion of vernacular language printed materials in the early modern period. Foundational to these repurposed ancient medical theories was the belief that the mind and body interacted in complex ways, requiring frequent monitoring of emotional states to achieve good health. For practitioners concerned with women’s reproductive health, women’s emotional regulation was vital to desirable physical outcomes throughout the period of childbearing, lasting beyond modern designations of conception and childbirth. Thus, this thesis challenges assumptions of how early modern historians should mark the phases of reproduction and argues instead that childbearing, at least for women, continued through the first years of an infant’s life.
P. Renée Baernstein (Advisor)
William Brown (Committee Member)
Cynthia Klestinec (Committee Member)
97 p.
European History; Gender; Gynecology; History; Obstetrics; Womens Studies
history of medicine; obstetrics; gynecology; reproductive health; emotions; mind body connection; England; seventeenth century; early modern; gender history; childbirth; breastfeeding; nursing; wet nurses; infant care; labor; midwives; man midwives; womb

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Johnson, Johnson, E. (2018). "Strong Passions of the Mind": Representations of Emotions and Women's Reproductive Bodies in Seventeenth-Century England [Master's thesis, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1531759449299599

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Johnson, Johnson, Erin. "Strong Passions of the Mind": Representations of Emotions and Women's Reproductive Bodies in Seventeenth-Century England . 2018. Miami University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1531759449299599.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Johnson, Johnson, Erin. ""Strong Passions of the Mind": Representations of Emotions and Women's Reproductive Bodies in Seventeenth-Century England ." Master's thesis, Miami University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1531759449299599

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1531759449299599
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© 2018, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License "Strong Passions of the Mind": Representations of Emotions and Women's Reproductive Bodies in Seventeenth-Century England by Erin Johnson Johnson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.