The Yellow Wallpaper

What I found unsettling about The Yellow Wallpaper was not so much the events in and of themselves but their prelude:  A man, and a physician nonetheless, is convinced that because there is no detectable bodily affliction to his wife, her “illness” is imagined and unwarranted. His logic seems to be as follows: “If I go out of my way to relocate her to some tranquil, beautiful location (and make a point of how much I am personally sacrificing to make this temporary relocation, as an added flair of guilt-inducement) I can show her how baseless her ‘nervousness’ is.” I have found this a common attitude of those who are ignorant regarding the realities of psychological disease – that depression, eating disorders, etc. can simply be remedied by “putting on your big-girl panties and getting over it,” and are simply excuses for laziness or weakness.  John selfishly comforts himself (and simultaneously confirms his own righteousness) by relocating –“he knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him (3)” – and by manipulating his wife into feeling guilty for her “imposition” on him -- “…he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more…I mean to be such a help to John…and here I am a comparative burden already (2, 3).” I realize the conflict of “belief vs. disbelief” is a common theme in stories about the supernatural, but this particular tale seems to hone in on the microcosm of that dilemma (the rejection of mental illness as a farcical or exaggerated emotional “phase” akin to puberty -- note the childlike way John interacts with the narrator), on its mundane/domestic origins, as the predecessor of the more fantastical events involving the narrator being “incorporated into the wallpaper.”