10-17-InventionOfKleptomania Flashcards
What is the title and author of the article?
THE INVENTION OF KLEPTOMANIA
by ELAINE S. ABELSON
What was new about shoplifting in the late nineteenth century?
Shoplifting was being performed by middle-class and upper class white women who could well afford the items that they took.
What were the cultural, social, and economic changes that made shoplifting different during this period?
- It was pathologised for upper and middle class women
- Ready and nearly unsupervised exposure to bright, shiney objects
- This is a public sphere that is acceptable for women.
- Women of some means meant Most shoplifters were women, but the association of shopping behavior with biological processes, so dramatically demonstrated in the Castle incident, was a cognitive leap that was deeply rooted in the intellectual assumptions of the Victorian period (131). of influence… so we can’t just call them ‘thieves’…
- There was a ready assumption that people of means can’t really do anything wrong.
How, according to this author, was the “science” behind the diagnosis of kleptomania intertwined with the class and gender assumptions of late nineteenth century American society?
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How did doctors define kleptomania and why did they define it in that way?
5 Doctors labeled Mrs. Castle a kleptomaniac because in their view she had lost the powers of reason; she suffered from hysteria triggered by specific physiological malfunction.
- While many of the arguments hinged on “whether madness was at root an organicdisease or a psychic disorder,” the construct of the kleptomaniac in- variably located the disease in the physical distinctions of female life.
- What doctors desig- nated “ovarian insanity” was transformed into the more specificdiscourse on kleptomania.
- In the widely read 1884 American edition of his textbook, Clinical Lectures on Mental Diseases, Scottish physician T. S. Clouston singled out disturbed menstrua-tion as a “constant danger to the mental stability of some women.” “It is often hard to determine,” he explained, “whether disordered or suspended menstruation is a cause or a symptom.”
Why was Mr. Castle not implicated in the case against his wife?
Simple. He was an affluent white man. Therefore, he is blameless.
How was Mr. Castle portrayed/treated throughout the trial?
Mrs. Castle exhibited every symptom a respectable kleptomaniac was supposed to possess: frequent nervous episodes, pains in the head, loss of memory, and menstrual problems. Further, she was married to a well-to-do merchant who was said to be “very generous” to his wife. Mr. Castle, in his turn, professed the proper ignorance of his wife’s shoplifting and said the evidence came as a “frightful revelation,” even though he was aware that “she had been subject at certain periods to mental delusions and loss of memory.
Explain, in your own words, what this sentence means within the context of this article: “Most shoplifters were women, but the association of shopping behavior with biological processes, so dramatically demonstrated in the Castle incident, was a cognitive leap that was deeply rooted in the intellectual assumptions of the Victorian period (131).
Most shoplifters were women, but the association of shopping behavior with biological processes, so dramatically demonstrated in the Castle incident, was a cognitive leap that was deeply rooted in the intellectual assumptions of the Victorian period (131).
The fact that there is a biological association with misbehavior points to the obsession of men with women’s reproductive systems.
Why did doctors describe kleptomania as a biological or physical disease and not as a moral shortcoming?
Because they were feeling their oats as doctors and wanted to hold sway on all things female related (medically)
In what ways did the new department stores threaten traditional values?
encouraged shoplifting
theyy preyed on women’ss captivity in the home.
Victorian Domesticity
- women are ruled-determined by their sexuality
- meant to be in the private sphere
- Its inherent class-ism
