Nightmares, Neurosis and Clinical Psychology in the Short Stories of Shirley Jackson

America in the 1950s was the site of a medical revolution. Pharmacology, neuroscience and psychiatry saw numerous developments and innovation using the technological advancements of the Second World War. Ground-breaking research into the functions of the brain, neurosurgery, psychotherapy and the nervous system was being undertaken on an international scale, but it was particularly in America that this research pervaded the lives of the general public. In the post-war era, there was a cultural emphasis placed on the idea of social recovery and a return to happiness and comfort. This was largely centred on consumer goods –new cars, refrigerators, recreational activities – but it also involved a discourse between medicine, therapy and emotional well-being. The 1950s brought mood-changing medicines such as tranquilizers, sedatives and antidepressants from the doctor’s cabinet to the drug-store window display.