American Psychiatrists and the Modern Man, 1900 to 1920

Abstract

This article examines two competing popular and professional constructions of masculinity in the first two decades of the century. One was the masculinity of youth, separatist and oppositional vis-à-vis women; the other was the respectable masculinity of bread-winning and married life. Drawing on psychiatric case records (from the Boston Psychopathic Hospital) as well as a range of published sources, this article argues that professionals advocated both constructions of masculinity and that men lived by both in their everyday lives. Particular attention is given to the role of sexuality in the consolidation of male identities; to “failures,” designated psychopaths; to battles over alcohol, with psychiatrists unwilling to align themselves too closely with women and prohibitionist aims; and to World War I and male hysteria.