Wash and Be Healed: The Water-Cure Movement and Women's Health (Health Society And Policy) [Paperback]

Susan Cayleff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 1991 | Series: Health Society And Policy

In a century characterized by dramatic health-care remedies bloodletting, purging, and leeching, for example hydropathy was one of the most celebrated alternative forms of medical care. Unlike these other cures, however, hydropathy, which entailed various applications of cold water, also staunchly advocated the reformation of such personal habits as diet, exercise, dress, and way of life. Susan E. Cayleff explores the relationship between this fascinating sect of nineteenth-century medicine and the women who took the cure. "Wash and Be Healed" investigates the theories, practices, medical and social philosophies, institutions, and the most prominent proponents of the water-cure movement and studies them in relation to the diverse reform networks of the nineteenth century. Documenting the popularity and importance of hydropathy among female activists, Cayleff argues that the water-cure movement was overpowered by allopathic (or orthodox) medicine which viewed hydropathy as a crackpot therapeutic largely because of its close association with nineteenth-century social activism. The book gives us an alternative view of social and sexual relationships which should contribute to the growing awareness among scholars that the history of health and healing must be more than the history of allopathic medicine. Susan E. Cayleff is Associate Professor in the Department of Women's Studies at San Diego State University.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[Cayleff] is eloquent and convincing in her demonstration that water cure presented an alternative to the prevailing view of the inherent weakness of female physiology.... [This] richly textured book is a welcome contribution to the growing body of literature on gender and medical practice and should be read by all students of nineteenth-century American medicine."
—Bulletin of the History of Medicine

"Cayleff has written a lively, thought-provoking account of the water-cure movement and its special meaning for mid-nineteenth-century women.... [She] has provided a valuable new perspective on a fascinating epoch in American health reform."
—American Historical Review

"A major contribution to our understanding of nineteenth-century reform impulses.... Cayleff is so deft at describing the appeal of the water-cure to overwrought Victorian women and men, so able at letting her subjects speak to the reader, that the hydropathic propaganda is not only comprehensible, but persuasive.... An excellent addition not only to the history of American medicine, but to nineteenth-century social and intellectual history in general."
—Medical Humanities Review

Book Description

In a century characterized by dramatic health-care remedies—bloodletting, purging, and leeching, for example—hydropathy was one of the most celebrated alternative forms of medical care. Unlike these other cures, however, hydropathy, which entailed various applications of cold water, also staunchly advocated the reformation of such personal habits as diet, exercise, dress, and way of life. Susan E. Cayleff explores the relationship between this fascinating sect of nineteenth-century medicine and the women who took the cure.

Wash and Be Healed investigates the theories, practices, medical and social philosophies, institutions, and the most prominent proponents of the water-cure movement and studies them in relation to the diverse reform networks of the nineteenth century. Documenting the popularity and importance of hydropathy among female activists, Cayleff argues that the water-cure movement was overpowered by allopathic (or orthodox) medicine which viewed hydropathy as a crackpot therapeutic largely because of its close association with nineteenth-century social activism. The book gives us an alternative view of social and sexual relationships which should contribute to the growing awareness among scholars that the history of health and healing must be more than the history of allopathic medicine.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (March 14, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877228590
• ISBN-13: 978-0877228592
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,781,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Overview of an Alternative Health Movement, December 10, 2000

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Laurie D. T. Mann - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wash and Be Healed: The Water-Cure Movement and Women's Health (Health Society And Policy) (Paperback)

In Wash and Be Healed: The Water-Cure Movement and Women's Health, Susan Cayleff documented the expansion and collapse of the water-cure movement and its impact on a number of middle class women across America. The idea of "taking the waters" for health was an ancient notion. Spas were built all over Europe near hot springs, and the wealthy often spent time at these resorts. But hydropathy as it evolved during the early 1800s became a rest cure for members of the new middle class, particularly women.

Modern hydropathy started as a reaction against the heroic medicine of the 17th and 18th century by Vincent Priessnitz, a German farmer. He turned to using wet wraps when he broke several ribs in an accident in the early 1820s and a local doctor gave him up as incurable. Within a few months, Priessnitz's simple treatments led to his recovery, and he began to promote this cure to other people.

Hydropathy spread across America in the mid-1800s. Cayleff found that a number of prominent early abolitionists and feminists went to water-cures in America: Harriett Beecher and Calvin Stowe, Susan B. Anthony, Alice James and Clara Barton. While most people went to water-cures for only a few weeks or months at a time, some lived there for many years. As Cayleff observed:

"For reform activists and professional women, the live-in cures offered freedom from public scrutiny and demands, a legitimate focus on oneself as opposed to one's labors and relationships, the opportunity to commune with like-minded residents, the respite from the isolation and demands of home, the prospect of companionship and new or rejuvenated relationships, and genuine physical restoration."

Hydropathy died out as a health movement, partially due to the fact that its effectiveness could not be scientifically proven. However, hydropathy did have a subtle impact on medical care, which did re-emerge during the 1960s and 1970s--people needed to be treated as individuals, not merely a collection of symptoms. So even if the specifics of hydropathy lost its impact, the general belief people had the power to manage their health has returned.