Hysterical pregnancy

Hysterical pregnancy is the account’s name for a recurring condition in the narrator’s married life, and for a crisis in which medical treatment is proposed without first challenging the circumstances that have made her suffer. Her third episode, six months after her wedding to General Sir Aubrey de la Pole Blessington, brings her to the point of requesting a clitoridectomy. Godwin Baxter questions the explanation behind that request and rejects the operation as a remedy.

Recurrence and Circumstances

The episode is presented as the third hysterical pregnancy, making recurrence part of its significance. The narrator had been educated first for domestic service and then, at a convent school in Lausanne, for the role of a wealthy man’s wife. She describes her marriage to the General as an escape from her father and says she was happy on her wedding day; after that night, however, she believed the fault lay with her. The account places the repeated condition within this history of constrained education and marriage, rather than offering a medical explanation for it.

The Proposed Operation

Six months after the wedding, the narrator is begging for a clitoridectomy. Dr. Prickett tells her that a skilled Scottish surgeon in London might perform it, treating the operation as a practical solution to the problem. Godwin Baxter visits her and asks why she wants it. As she recounts her childhood, schooling, and marriage, he challenges the explanation she has accepted and tells her that the operation cannot help. He promises to convey his judgment to Dr. Prickett, while acknowledging that the doctor may not accept it.

Significance in the Account

The scene turns on a conflict between an intervention directed at the narrator’s body and an attempt to understand the conditions of her life. Godwin does not blame the men involved, arguing that they too were badly educated; nevertheless, he tells her that she has been badly treated and insists that she has a right to know his opinion. The third episode therefore marks not simply another recurrence, but a moment when the proposed remedy is questioned and the narrator is given information with which to judge it.