Hysteria

Illustration of 1893 of a woman with hysteria

Hysteria is a term used colloquially to refer to unruly emotional excess and can refer to a temporary mental or emotional state. In the 19th century XIX hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical disease in women. It is assumed that the basis for the diagnosis operated on the belief that women are predisposed to mental and behavioral conditions; an interpretation of sex-related differences in stress responses. In the XX century it came to be considered a disease mental health. Many influential people, such as Sigmund Freud and Jean-Martin Charcot, devoted research to hysterical patients.

Hysteria is not currently recognized as a disease and its diagnosis is considered to have been due to gender bias. The general diagnosis of hysteria has been fragmented into countless medical categories, such as epilepsy, histrionic disorder of personality disorder, conversion disorder, dissociative disorder, or other medical conditions.

History

Throughout the centuries hysteria has been attributed to several causes. It is currently considered that its approach was due to gender bias and has been replaced by other diagnoses such as functional disorders

The word hysteria comes from the Greek word for uterus, hystera. The earliest record of hysteria dates back to 1900 BC. C., when the Egyptians recorded behavioral abnormalities in adult women in medical papyri. The Egyptians attributed the behavioral abnormalities to a uterus that had dislodged from its place, hence the condition was later called hysteria. To treat hysteria, Egyptian doctors prescribed various medications. For example, doctors placed strong-smelling substances on the vulvae of patients to encourage the uterus to return to its proper position. Another tactic was to smell or swallow unpleasant herbs to encourage the uterus to return to the lower abdomen.

The ancient Greeks accepted the explanation of the ancient Egyptians; however, they included in their definition of hysteria the inability to have children or the lack of marriage. The ancient Romans also attributed hysteria to an abnormality in the uterus; however, they discounted the traditional explanation of a wandering uterus. Instead, the ancient Romans attributed hysteria to disease of the uterus or an interruption in reproduction (i.e., miscarriage, menopause, etc). The theories of hysteria of the ancient Egyptians, ancient Greeks, and ancient Romans were the basis of the Western understanding of hysteria.

However, between the 5th and 13th centuries, the growing influence of Christianity in the Latin West altered the medical and public understanding of hysteria. The writings of Augustine of Hippo suggested that human suffering was the result of sin, thus hysteria was perceived as demonic possession. With the change in the perception of hysteria came a change in treatment options. Instead of admitting patients in a hospital, the church began treating patients through through prayers, amulets, and exorcisms. In addition, during the Renaissance many patients were prosecuted as witches and subjected to interrogation, torture, and execution.

However, during the 16th and 17th centuries, activists and academics worked to shift the perception of hysteria back to a medical condition. In particular, the French physician Charles Lepois insisted that hysteria was a disease of the brain Also, in 1697, the English physician Thomas Sydenham theorized that hysteria was an emotional condition, rather than a physical condition. Many physicians followed the example of Lepois and Sydenham and hysteria became disassociated from the soul and womb. During this time period, science began to focus hysteria on the central nervous system. As physicians developed a greater understanding of the human nervous system, the neurological model of hysteria was created, which further promoted the conception of hysteria. hysteria as a mental disorder.

In 1859, Paul Briquet defined hysteria as a chronic syndrome manifesting in many unexplained symptoms in all organ systems of the body. What Briquet described became known as Briquet's syndrome, or somatization disorders, in 1971. Over a ten-year period, Briquet conducted 430 case studies of hysterical patients. Following Briquet, Jean-Martin Charcot studied women in an asylum in France and used hypnosis as a treatment. He was also a mentor to Pierre Janet, another French psychologist, who studied five of the symptoms of hysteria in depth (anesthesia, amnesia, apathy, motor control disorders, and character change) and proposed that the symptoms of hysteria occurred due to a lapse of consciousness. Both Charcot and Janet inspired Freud's work. Freud theorized that hysteria stemmed from childhood sexual abuse or repression, and was also one of the first to apply hysteria to men.

During the 20th century, as psychiatry advanced in the West, the diagnoses of anxiety and depression began to replace to hysteria diagnoses in Western countries. For example, from 1949 to 1978, annual admissions of hysteria patients in England and Wales fell by approximately two-thirds. With the decline in hysteria patients in Western cultures, there was an increase in patients with anxiety and depression. Theories as to why hysteria diagnoses began to decline vary, but many historians infer World War II , Westernization and migration changed Western expectations of mental health. Western societies of the 20th century they hoped that depression and anxiety would e manifested more in the generations after the Second World War and in displaced persons; and therefore individuals reported or were diagnosed accordingly. Additionally, medical advances explained ailments previously attributed to hysteria such as epilepsy or infertility.

Modern Perceptions

In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association removed hysteria from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

Diagnoses of hysteria are now considered to be due to gender bias. This was based on the medical assumption that the uterus weakened women's mental functions.

Hysteria has been superseded by other diagnoses such as functional disorders. The effects of hysteria as a diagnosable disease in the 18th and 19th centuries have had a lasting effect on the medical treatment of women's health.