Female hysteria

{{sources needed}}
[[File:An American text-book of the diseases of children (1895) (14595913647).jpg|thumb|right|165px|A purported case of hysteria from 1895]]
{{altmed}}
'''Female hysteria,''' or simply '''hysteria''', is the designation for a malady presenting an extraordinary and shifting range of physical and [[psychological]] symptoms. The name comes from the [[Fun:Greek|Greek]] word for uterus (hence "hysterectomy"). Hysteria was originally thought a disease of [[women]] brought on by the migration of the uterus. When it was later determined that the uterus was a non-migratory organ, physicians and other learned ''men'' concluded that hysteria was the perfect default [[diagnosis]] for whatever was troubling their female patients. In time, suspicion grew that hysteria might be [[Iatrogenesis|iatrogenic]] – a conceptually constructed disease contracted via the interaction between physicians and patients.

==Origin==
The diagnosis dates back to the [[ancient Egypt]]ians and the cause of the "disease" changed many times throughout its history.

*The first known record of hysteria as the movement of the uterus causing various mental and physical problems dates back to circa 1990 BCE in Egypt. Both [[Plato]] and Hippocrates repeated this assertion.

*Galen, living in the 2<sup>nd</sup> and 3<sup>rd</sup> centuries CE, believed it to be caused by the stoppage of [[vagina]]l fluids resulting from a lack of [[sex|intercourse]].

*In [[Christian]] [[Medieval]] [[Europe]], hysteria was thought to be the result of [[demonic possession]].

*A number of physicians in [[Renaissance]] and early modern Europe claimed it was a neurological disorder.

The accepted treatment was more sex, or "[[masturbation|pelvic massages]]" by a midwife if the woman was unmarried.

==Victorian era==
[[File:Sears vibrators.jpg|thumb|Catalogs were a lot more interesting back in the day. (Sears-Roebuck catalog, 1918)]]
The diagnosis of hysteria became quite common during the Victorian era as nearly any symptoms — headaches, nausea, dizziness, etc. — were considered to be evidence of the "illness". Some physicians estimated as many as a quarter of all women were afflicted with hysteria. Common treatments included the manual stimulation, hydrotherapy (shooting a jet of water at the [[vagina]]), or the use of [[sex toys|dildos]]. Electric-powered vibrators were patented in the 1870s for use in doctors' offices to make it easier for women to reach the state of "hysterical paroxysm," i.e. [[orgasm]]. Vibrators soon came to be sold in retail catalogs so women could perform their own, er, "medical" treatments.

==The 20<sup>th</sup> century==
As medical diagnosis became more [[evidence-based medicine|scientific]], the symptoms of hysteria were narrowed and diagnoses dropped off over the first half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century until the diagnosis disappeared. Furthermore, the aftermath of [[World War I]] witnessed a surge in cases similar to hysteria among ''men'', an illness that was then called "shell shock" or "male hysteria" and is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder ([[PTSD]]).<ref>Tucker, Abigail. [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/History-Of-The-Hysterical-Man.html?c=y&story=fullstory "History of the Hysterical Man."] ''Smithsonian.com'', 5 January 2009.</ref> Sadly, these cases could not be cured with a vibrator.

==External links==
*Illis, LS. [http://www.nature.com/sc/journal/v40/n7/full/3101327a.html Hysteria]. ''Spinal Cord'' (2002) 40, 311-312 doi:10.1038/sj.sc.3101327
*[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/03/21/reviews/990321.21boxert.html Batteries Not Included: A social history of the vibrator] by Sarah Boxer
*[http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/rpm24/technologyOfOrgasm.html Technology of Orgasm]

==See also==
*[[Sex toys]]
*[[Drapetomania]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Medicine]]
[[Category:Mental health]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]
[[Category:Sexism]]
[[Category:Sexuality]]
[[Category:Mental health woo]]

Categories: Medicine, Mental health, Pseudoscience, Sexism, Sexuality, Mental health woo