"The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman might be called a diagnosis and treatment plan that forces a new mother from postpartum depression into postpartum psychosis (4woman.gov). When reading this short story, one must keep in mind that it was written during the latter part of the 19th century. Most physicians and psychiatrists at this time were men who did not take female issues as serious ones and tended to be insensitive to women. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is trying to inform the medical community that the treatment for depression at this time was not helping but hindering the recovery process and that the cure was worse than the disorder itself. "The Yellow Wallpaper" shows how the misdiagnosis and the mistreatment of various types of mental illness can dramatically change an individual.

An important part of the misdiagnosis is shown in the first part of "The Yellow...