Well, I can tell you what a 'rest cure' was but it just makes it all the more mind-boggling. It was a 19th century treatment for mental disorders, usually hysteria, primarily used for women in which the patient was essentially isolated from all stimuli and the only people they saw during that time was the nurse who took care of them and the doctor.
I've also seen it used in books set around the late 1800s/early 1900s where someone (quite often a character seen as 'decicate') would go to a hot springs or seaside for a rest cure, but in that context it was more of a holiday 'for my health.'
Neither of which should be applicable unless John *cough* Holmes was a vaporish, delicate little flower.
no subject
Date: 29 Sep 2007 04:33 pm (UTC)Well, I can tell you what a 'rest cure' was but it just makes it all the more mind-boggling. It was a 19th century treatment for mental disorders, usually hysteria, primarily used for women in which the patient was essentially isolated from all stimuli and the only people they saw during that time was the nurse who took care of them and the doctor.
I've also seen it used in books set around the late 1800s/early 1900s where someone (quite often a character seen as 'decicate') would go to a hot springs or seaside for a rest cure, but in that context it was more of a holiday 'for my health.'
Neither of which should be applicable unless John *cough* Holmes was a vaporish, delicate little flower.