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{{DiseaseDisorder infobox |
  
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Name = Hysteria |
  
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ICD10 = F41.8, F44 |
  
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ICD9 = {{ICD9|300.1}} |
  
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'''Hysteria''' is a diagnostic label applied to a state of [[mind]], one of unmanageable [[fear]] or [[emotion]]al excesses. The fear is often centered on a body part, most often on an imagined problem with that body part ([[disease]] is a common complaint). People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to the overwhelming fear.
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'''Hysteria''', in its colloquial use, describes a state of [[mind]], one of unmanageable [[fear]] or [[emotion]]al excesses. The fear is often caused by multiple events in one's past that involved some sort of severe conflict; the fear can be centered on a body part or most commonly on an imagined problem with that body part ([[disease]] is a common complaint. See also [[Body dysmorphic disorder]] and [[Hypochondriasis]]. People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to the overwhelming fear.
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  +
Psychiatrists and other physicians have in theory given up the use of "hysteria", replacing it with more euphemistic terms that are essentially synonyms. These include "psychosomatic", "functional", "nonorganic", "[[psychogenic]]", and "medically unexplained". In 1980 the [[American Psychiatric Association]] officially changed the diagnosis of "hysterical neurosis, conversion type" to "[[conversion disorder]]". Hysteria also has significant overlap with the diagnostic term "[[somatization disorder]]" and with [[somatoform disorders]] in general.
   
 
==History==
  
==History==
 
{{main|Female hysteria}}
  
{{main|Female hysteria}}
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The term originates with the [[Greek language|Greek]] [[medicine|medical]] term, ''hysterikos''. This referred to a supposed medical condition, peculiar to [[woman|women]], caused by disturbances of the [[uterus]], ''hystera'' in Greek. The term ''hysteria'' was coined by [[Hippocrates]], who thought that the cause of hysteria was irregular [[circulatory system|movement of blood]] from the uterus to the [[brain]].
+
The term originates with the Greek [[medicine|medical]] term, ''hysterikos''. This referred to a medical condition, thought to be particular to [[woman|women]], caused by disturbances of the [[uterus]], ''hystera'' in Greek. The term ''hysteria'' was coined by [[Hippocrates]], who thought that suffocation and madness arose in women whose uteri had become too light and dry from lack of sexual intercourse and, as a result, wandered upward, compressing the heart, lungs, and diaphragm.
   
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The same general definition, or under the name [[female hysteria]], came into widespread use in the middle and late [[19th century]] to describe what is today generally considered to be [[sexual dissatisfaction]].<ref name=Maines>{{cite book|id=ISBN 0801866464|title=The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction|author=Rachel P. Maines|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press | location=Baltimore|year=1999}}</ref> Typical "treatment" was massage of the patient's genitalia by the physician and later [[vibrator]]s or water sprays to cause [[orgasm]].<ref name=Maines/> By the early [[1900s]] the practice, and usage of the term, had fallen from use, until it was again popularised when the writings of [[Sigmund Freud]] became known and influential in [[Britain]] and the [[USA]] in the [[1920s]]. The [[Freudian]] [[psychoanalytic school]] of [[psychology]] uses its own, somewhat controversial, ways to treat hysteria.
 +
The same general definition, or under the name [[female hysteria]], came into widespread use in the middle and late 19th century to describe what is today generally considered to be [[sexual dissatisfaction]].<ref name=Maines>{{cite book|isbn=0-8018-6646-4|title=The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria", the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction|author=Rachel P. Maines|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press | location=Baltimore|year=1999}}</ref> Typical treatment was massage of the patient's genitalia by the physician and later [[Vibrator (sensual)|vibrator]]s or water sprays to cause [[orgasm]].<ref name=Maines/> By the early 1900s, the practice and usage of the term had fallen from use until it was again popularized when the writings of [[Sigmund Freud]] became known and influential in [[United Kingdom|Britain]] and the [[USA]] in the 1920s. The [[Freudian]] [[psychoanalytic school]] of [[psychology]] uses its own, somewhat controversial, ways to treat hysteria.
   
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The knowledge of hysterical processes was advanced by the work of [[Jean-Martin Charcot]], a French [[neurologist]]. However, many now consider hysteria to be a '[[legacy diagnosis]]' (i.e.: a catch-all [[junk diagnosis]]),<ref>{{cite journal|author=Mark S. Micale|title=On the "Disappearance" of Hysteria: A Study in the Clinical Deconstruction of a Diagnosis|journal=[[Isis (journal)|Isis]]|volume=84|pages=496-526|year=1993}}</ref> particularly due to its long list of possible manifestations: one Victorian physician catalogued 75 pages of possible symptoms of hysteria and called the list incomplete.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Laura Briggs|title=The Race of Hysteria: "Overcivilization" and the "Savage" Woman in Late Nineteenth-Century Obsterics and Gynecology|journal=American Quarterly|volume=52|pages=246-73|year=2000}}</ref>
 +
The knowledge of hysterical processes was advanced by the work of [[Jean-Martin Charcot]], a French [[neurologist]]. However, many now consider hysteria to be a legacy diagnosis (i.e., a catch-all junk diagnosis),<ref>{{cite journal|author=Mark S. Micale|title=On the "Disappearance" of Hysteria: A Study in the Clinical Deconstruction of a Diagnosis|journal=[[Isis (journal)|Isis]]|volume=84|pages=496–526|year=1993|doi=10.1086/356549}}</ref> particularly due to its long list of possible manifestations: one Victorian physician cataloged 75 pages of possible symptoms of hysteria and called the list incomplete.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Laura Briggs|title=The Race of Hysteria: "Overcivilization" and the "Savage" Woman in Late Nineteenth-Century Obstetrics and Gynecology|journal=American Quarterly|volume=52|pages=246–73|year=2000|doi=10.1353/aq.2000.0013}}</ref>.
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Current psychiatric terminology distinguishes two types of hysteria: somatoform and dissociative. Dissociative hysteria includes amnestic [[fugue state]]s. Somatoform disorders include conversion disorder, somatization disorder, chronic pain disorder, hypochondriasis, and body dysmorphic disorder. In somatoform disorders, the patient exhibits physical symptoms such as low back pain or limb paralysis, without apparent physical cause. Recent neuroscientific research, however, is starting to show that there are characteristic patterns of brain activity associated with these states. All these disorders are thought to be unconscious, not feigned or intentional malingering.
  +
  +
Freudian psychoanalytic theory attributed hysterical symptoms to the subconscious mind's attempt to protect the patient from psychic stress. Subconscious motives include primary gain, in which the symptom directly relieves the stress (as when a patient coughs to release energy pent up from keeping a secret), and secondary gain, in which the symptom provides an independent advantage such as staying home from a hated job. More recent critics have noted the possibility of tertiary gain, when a patient is induced subconsciously to display a symptom because of the desires of others (as when a controlling husband enjoys the docility of his sick wife). There need be no gain at all, however, in a hysterical symptom. A child playing hockey may fall and for several hours believe he is unable to move, because he has recently heard of a famous hockey player who fell and broke his neck.
  +
  +
[[Jungian]] psychologist Laurie Layton Schapira explored what she labels a "[[Cassandra Complex]]" suffered by those traditionally diagnosed with hysteria, denoting a tendency for those with hysteria to be disbelieved or dismissed when relating the facticity of their experiences to others.<ref name="Laurie Layton Schapira 1988">Laurie Layton Schapira, The Cassandra Complex: Living With Disbelief: A Modern Perspective on Hysteria (1988)</ref> Based on clinical experience, she delineates three factors which constitute the Cassandra complex in hysterics: (a). dysfunctional relationships with social manifestations of rationality, order, and reason, leading to; (b). emotional or physical suffering, particularly in the form of somatic, often gynaecological complaints, and
  +
(c). being ''disbelieved'' or dismissed when attempting to relate the facticity of these experiences to others.<ref name="Laurie Layton Schapira 1988"/>
   
 
==Mass hysteria==
  
==Mass hysteria==
 
{{main|Mass hysteria}}
  
{{main|Mass hysteria}}
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The term also occurs in the phrase mass hysteria to describe mass public near-panic reactions. It is commonly applied to the waves of popular medical problems that "everyone gets" in response to news articles.
 +
The term also occurs in the phrase mass hysteria to describe mass public near-panic reactions. It is commonly applied to the waves of popular medical problems that "everyone gets" in response to news articles.A similar usage refers to any sort of "public wave" phenomenon.
   
  +
==See also==
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A similar usage refers to any sort of "public wave" phenomenon, and has been used to describe the periodic widespread reappearance and public interest in [[unidentified flying object|UFO]] reports, [[crop circles]], and similar examples. Also, when information, real or fake, becomes misinterpreted but believed.
  
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*[[Catalepsy]]
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*[[Conversion disorder]]
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*[[Female hysteria]]
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*[[Histrionic personality disorder|Histrionic Personality Disorder]]
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*[[Hysterical contagion]]
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*[[Hysterical paralysis]]
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*[[Hysterical strength]]
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*[[Hysterical vision disturbances]]
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*[[Suggestibility]]
   
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Hysteria is often associated with movements like the [[Salem Witch Trials]], [[McCarthyism]], the [[Red Scare]], [[Terrorism]], and [[Satanic ritual abuse]], where it is better understood through the related sociological term of [[moral panic]].
  
   
 
==References==
  
==References==
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{{reflist}}
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<references/>
  
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*The H-Word, Guardian Unlimited, http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,782338,00.html
  
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*Halligan, P.W., Bass, C., & Marshall, J.C. (Eds.)(2001). Contemporary Approach to the Study of Hysteria: Clinical and Theoretical Perspectives. Oxford University Press, UK.
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* Sander Gilman, Roy Porter, George Rousseau, Elaine Showalter, and Helen King (1993). ''Hysteria Before Freud'' (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Oxford: University of California Press).
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==External links==
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[[Category:Fear]]
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[[Category:Mental disorders]]
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[[Category:Symptoms]]
   
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Hysteria, in its colloquial use, describes a state of mind, one of unmanageable fear or emotional excesses. The fear is often caused by multiple events in one's past that involved some sort of severe conflict; the fear can be centered on a body part or most commonly on an imagined problem with that body part (disease is a common complaint. See also Body dysmorphic disorder and Hypochondriasis. People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to the overwhelming fear.

Psychiatrists and other physicians have in theory given up the use of "hysteria", replacing it with more euphemistic terms that are essentially synonyms. These include "psychosomatic", "functional", "nonorganic", "psychogenic", and "medically unexplained". In 1980 the American Psychiatric Association officially changed the diagnosis of "hysterical neurosis, conversion type" to "conversion disorder". Hysteria also has significant overlap with the diagnostic term "somatization disorder" and with somatoform disorders in general.

History

Main article: Female hysteria

The term originates with the Greek medical term, hysterikos. This referred to a medical condition, thought to be particular to women, caused by disturbances of the uterus, hystera in Greek. The term hysteria was coined by Hippocrates, who thought that suffocation and madness arose in women whose uteri had become too light and dry from lack of sexual intercourse and, as a result, wandered upward, compressing the heart, lungs, and diaphragm.

The same general definition, or under the name female hysteria, came into widespread use in the middle and late 19th century to describe what is today generally considered to be sexual dissatisfaction.[1] Typical treatment was massage of the patient's genitalia by the physician and later vibrators or water sprays to cause orgasm.[1] By the early 1900s, the practice and usage of the term had fallen from use until it was again popularized when the writings of Sigmund Freud became known and influential in Britain and the USA in the 1920s. The Freudian psychoanalytic school of psychology uses its own, somewhat controversial, ways to treat hysteria.

The knowledge of hysterical processes was advanced by the work of Jean-Martin Charcot, a French neurologist. However, many now consider hysteria to be a legacy diagnosis (i.e., a catch-all junk diagnosis),[2] particularly due to its long list of possible manifestations: one Victorian physician cataloged 75 pages of possible symptoms of hysteria and called the list incomplete.[3].

Current psychiatric terminology distinguishes two types of hysteria: somatoform and dissociative. Dissociative hysteria includes amnestic fugue states. Somatoform disorders include conversion disorder, somatization disorder, chronic pain disorder, hypochondriasis, and body dysmorphic disorder. In somatoform disorders, the patient exhibits physical symptoms such as low back pain or limb paralysis, without apparent physical cause. Recent neuroscientific research, however, is starting to show that there are characteristic patterns of brain activity associated with these states. All these disorders are thought to be unconscious, not feigned or intentional malingering.

Freudian psychoanalytic theory attributed hysterical symptoms to the subconscious mind's attempt to protect the patient from psychic stress. Subconscious motives include primary gain, in which the symptom directly relieves the stress (as when a patient coughs to release energy pent up from keeping a secret), and secondary gain, in which the symptom provides an independent advantage such as staying home from a hated job. More recent critics have noted the possibility of tertiary gain, when a patient is induced subconsciously to display a symptom because of the desires of others (as when a controlling husband enjoys the docility of his sick wife). There need be no gain at all, however, in a hysterical symptom. A child playing hockey may fall and for several hours believe he is unable to move, because he has recently heard of a famous hockey player who fell and broke his neck.

Jungian psychologist Laurie Layton Schapira explored what she labels a "Cassandra Complex" suffered by those traditionally diagnosed with hysteria, denoting a tendency for those with hysteria to be disbelieved or dismissed when relating the facticity of their experiences to others.[4] Based on clinical experience, she delineates three factors which constitute the Cassandra complex in hysterics: (a). dysfunctional relationships with social manifestations of rationality, order, and reason, leading to; (b). emotional or physical suffering, particularly in the form of somatic, often gynaecological complaints, and (c). being disbelieved or dismissed when attempting to relate the facticity of these experiences to others.[4]

Mass hysteria

Main article: Mass hysteria

The term also occurs in the phrase mass hysteria to describe mass public near-panic reactions. It is commonly applied to the waves of popular medical problems that "everyone gets" in response to news articles.A similar usage refers to any sort of "public wave" phenomenon.

See also


References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Rachel P. Maines (1999). The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria", the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
  2. ↑ Mark S. Micale (1993). On the "Disappearance" of Hysteria: A Study in the Clinical Deconstruction of a Diagnosis. Isis 84: 496–526.
  3. ↑ Laura Briggs (2000). The Race of Hysteria: "Overcivilization" and the "Savage" Woman in Late Nineteenth-Century Obstetrics and Gynecology. American Quarterly 52: 246–73.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Laurie Layton Schapira, The Cassandra Complex: Living With Disbelief: A Modern Perspective on Hysteria (1988)
  • Halligan, P.W., Bass, C., & Marshall, J.C. (Eds.)(2001). Contemporary Approach to the Study of Hysteria: Clinical and Theoretical Perspectives. Oxford University Press, UK.
  • Sander Gilman, Roy Porter, George Rousseau, Elaine Showalter, and Helen King (1993). Hysteria Before Freud (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Oxford: University of California Press).

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