ABSTRACT
In the second half of the 19th century, psychiatrists treating young women observed that girls "are more liable to suffer in adolescence," and that the girls who suffer include those who seem most psychologically vital, "typically energetic and passionate, 'exhibiting more than usual force and decision of character, of strong resolution, fearless of danger, bold riders, having plenty of what is termed nerve' " (Showalter, 1985, pp. 130, 132). Maudsley and Skey made these observations in England in the 1860s and 1870s. Shortly thereafter, Freud and Breuer (1895/1974) recorded similar impressions in Vienna:
238 GILLIGAN
Countering the generally held impression that hysteria was a sign of mental degeneracy, Breuer concluded, "the capacity for forming sound judgments is certainly not more abundant in [there girls] than in other people, but it is rare to find in them simple, dull intellectual inertia or stupidity" (p. 321).
