Desperate Housewives, Neuroses and the Domestic Environment, 1945-1970

250 Pages·2012·15.563 MB·English

by  Ali Haggett

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, NEUROSES AND
THE DOMESTIC ENVIRONMENT, 1945–1970
Studies for the Society for the Social History
of Medicine
Series Editors: David Cantor
Keir Waddington
Titles in this Series
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2 Locating Health: Historical and Anthropological Investigations
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3 Medicine in the Remote and Rural North, 1800–2000
J. T. H. Connor and Stephan Curtis (eds)
4 A Modern History of the Stomach: Gastric Illness, Medicine and British
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5 War and the Militarization of British Army Medicine, 1793–1830
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6 Nervous Disease in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain: Th e Reality of
a Fashionable Disorder
Heather R. Beatty
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, NEUROSES AND
THE DOMESTIC ENVIRONMENT, 1945–1970
by
Ali Haggett
First published 2012 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© Taylor & Franc is 2012
© Ali Haggett 2012
To the best of the Publisher’s knowledge every eff ort has been made to contact
relevant copyright holders and to clear any relevant copyright issues. 
Any omissions that come to their attention will be remedied in future editions.
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book
may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
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are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
british library cataloguing in publication data
Haggett, Ali.
Desperate housewives, neuroses and the domestic environment, 1945–1970. –
(Studies for the Society for the Social History of Medicine)
1. Housewives – Mental health – History – 20th century. 2. Housewives –
Social conditions – 20th century. 3. Depression in women – Social aspects. 4.
Sex role – Health aspects – History – 20th century.
I. Title II. Series
306.4’61–dc23
ISBN-13: 978-1-84893-310-1 (hbk)
Typeset by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
List of Figures ix
Introduction 1
1 Refl ections on the Desperate Housewife 11
2 Th e Art of Marriage: Marriage and Mothering during the Post-War Period 29
3 Th e Housewife’s Day: Personal Accounts of Housewifery and Mothering 49
4 Lightening Troubled Minds: Mid-Twentieth Century Medical
Understandings of Aff ective Disorders 75
5 Not Something You Talk About: Personal Accounts of Anxiety
and Depression 105
6 For Ladies in Distress: Representations of Anxiety and Depression in
the Medical and Popular Press 129
Conclusion 171
Appendix 181
Notes 183
Works Cited 213
Index 231
Say not ‘I have found the truth’, but rather, ‘I have found a truth’.
Kahlil Gibran, Th e Prophet
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Th e research for this project was funded by the Wellcome Trust and I would like
to thank them sincerely for their continued support. Many archivists and librar-
ians have assisted me along the way, and I would like to express my appreciation
to the staff at the British Library, Euston; the British Newspaper Library, Col-
indale; the Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex; the
Women’s Library at London Metropolitan University; and the Exeter Health
Library at the Peninsula Medical School. In the craft ing of this book I have also
been expertly guided by Keir Waddington, Mark Pollard, Ruth Ireland, Nick
Ascroft and Eleanor Hooker at Pickering and Chatto.
I am indebted to the thirty-fi ve women who came forward to off er me their
recollections of post-war domesticity, without which the oral history component
of this book would not have been possible. Without exception, these women
received me with warmth and generosity, and for this I am extremely grateful. I
hope that in this work I have been able to do justice to their contributions. I am
also grateful to Kate Fisher for sharing with me her expertise on the practice of oral
history. Some of the oral history material has been reproduced in an article enti-
tled ‘Desperate Housewives and the Domestic Environment in Post-War Britain:
Individual Perspectives’, Oral History, 37:1; and in a chapter entitled ‘Housewives,
Neuroses and the Domestic Environment in Britain 1945–1970’, in M. Jackson
(ed.), Health and the Modern Home (New York: Routledge, 2007). I am grateful
to the editors of both publications for their kind permission to reproduce the rel-
evant sections of material.
Every eff ort has been made to contact the copyright holders of the images
reproduced in this book. Individual accreditations are cited with each illustra-
tion; however, particular thanks go to Th e Wellcome Library, London; Th e
British Library, London; and the BMJ for their kind permission to reproduce
the images. Th anks are also due to Lee Snook, the University of Exeter, for
advice on obtaining copyright permissions and to Alasdair McCartney at Well-
come Images for the effi cient way in which he dealt with my requests.
I would like to thank the Centre for Medical History, the University of
Exeter, for providing a vibrant intellectual environment and for supporting this
– vii –
viii Desperate Housewives, Neuroses and the Domestic Environment, 1945–1970
research. Sarah Hayes and Deborah Palmer have generously contributed their
friendship and intellectual enthusiasm and Claire Keyte has provided excep-
tional administrative assistance. I am grateful also to Hilary Marland for her
advice on various aspects of authoring this book and for raising stimulating ques-
tions about my research.
Finally, there are three people who deserve special thanks and without whom
this book would not have been possible. My greatest debt will always be to Mark
Jackson whose kindness, generosity and intellectual expertise has been instru-
mental, not only to this book, but to my academic achievements more broadly.
Phil Hobbs opened the door to academia for me many years ago and without
his inspiration this book would never have come to fruition. And fi nally, sincere
thanks go to my husband David for his love and understanding, and for the faith
he has shown in me throughout this process.
I dedicate this book to my parents Peter and Margaret, and my sons Th omas
and Connor.
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 6.1: Largactil, BMJ, 1 April 1961 135
Figure 6.2: Largactil, BMJ, 27 July 1963 137
Figure 6.3: Largactil, BMJ, 24 April 1965 138
Figure 6.4: Aventyl, BMJ, 26 September 1964 140
Figure 6.5: Stelazine, BMJ, 11 September 1965 142
Figure 6.6: Advertisement, BMJ, 2 September 1961 144
Figure 6.7: Advertisement, BMJ, 12 March 1966 145
Figure 6.8: Nactisol, BMJ, 4 December 1965 149
Figure 6.9: Durophet, BMJ, 16 April 1966 150
Figure 6.10: Lucozade, Woman’s Own, 25 June 1960 159
Figure 6.11: Horlicks, Woman’s Weekly, 30 September 1961 160
Figure 6.12: Sanatogen, Woman’s Realm, 24 September 1966 163
Figure 6.13: Sanatogen, Woman, 18 February 1967 164
Figure 6.14: Complan, Woman, 11 February 1967 166
– ix –