What is hysteria, and why were so many women diagnosed with it? - Mark S. Micale

Summary

The script explores the historical concept of 'hysteria', a term used from 300 BCE to the early 1900s to diagnose a wide range of ailments in women, stemming from a supposed wandering womb. It traces the evolution from a physical ailment to a mental disorder, reflecting societal attitudes towards women. The narrative highlights how hysteria was used to pathologize female behavior and the eventual shift to more accurate, less gendered diagnoses, with hysteria being removed from the DSM in 1980.

Takeaways

• 🚺 Hysteria was a term historically used to diagnose women with a wide range of unexplained medical conditions.
• 🌍 The concept of hysteria originated in ancient Greece and was linked to the uterus, suggesting it was a 'wandering womb' causing various ailments.
• 🤔 The term was used as a cultural signifier for behaviors that male authorities found contemptible or incomprehensible in women.
• 🏥 Roman physicians rejected the 'wandering womb' theory but still considered the uterus the source of hysteria, treating it by inducing orgasms.
• 🕰️ By the late Middle Ages, hysteria was viewed as a spiritual malady influenced by Satan, reflecting a misogynistic shift in medical practice.
• 🔮 During the 16th and 17th centuries, women, especially non-conforming ones, were at risk of being accused of witchcraft due to hysteria.
• 🎩 In Victorian times, hysteria was considered a mental condition, and 'nerve doctors' used rest cures to treat middle-class women's emotional distress.
• 📚 Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper' reflects the distressing treatments for hysteria, including isolation and intellectual deprivation.
• 🧠 Sigmund Freud believed hysteria was caused by repressed emotional trauma and not unique to women, leading to the concept of 'male hysteria' or 'shell shock'.
• 📉 Over the 20th century, hysteria was replaced by more specific, less gendered diagnoses, and was removed from the DSM in 1980.
• 🏛️ The legacy of hysteria reflects a long history of medical sexism and the misattribution and trivialization of women's pain in Western medicine.

Q & A

What was the term used by European and American doctors from 300 BCE to the early 1900s to describe unexplainable medical conditions in women?

The term used was 'hysteria', which was a catch-all term for various ailments and symptoms experienced by women.

What is the origin of the term 'hysteria'?

The term 'hysteria' is derived from the Greek word for uterus, and it was first used in the 4th century BCE.

What was the 'wandering womb' theory proposed by the Greeks?

The Greeks believed that hysteria was a malady of the womb, arguing that the uterus could dislodge and move throughout the body, causing various ailments, and that it wandered because it longed to bear children.

How did Roman physicians view hysteria differently from the Greeks?

Roman physicians rejected the wandering womb theory but still considered the uterus as the source of hysteria, believing it produced a secretion similar to semen that could corrupt the blood and irritate the nerves if not released.

How did the spread of Christianity influence the medical understanding of hysteria?

With the spread of Christianity, physicians began to view hysteria as a malady of the soul, reflecting Satanic influence, and blamed women's symptoms and pain on their supposed inherent weak wills and susceptibility to sin.

What was the consequence for women who didn't conform to social expectations during the 16th and 17th centuries?

Women who didn't conform to social expectations risked being accused of witchcraft, which often carried heavy consequences.

What was the approach to treating hysteria in late Victorian Europe and North America?

Middle-class women were referred to 'nerve doctors' who used isolating and unfounded rest cures to treat emotional and psychological distress.

What is the connection between Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper' and the treatment of hysteria?

Gilman drew from her own distressing treatment for her so-called hysterical tendencies in her semi-autobiographical short story 'The Yellow Wallpaper', where the narrator is confined and denied intellectual activity.

What was Sigmund Freud's perspective on hysteria?

Freud believed hysteria, like other nervous conditions, was caused by repressed emotional trauma and required drawing these memories out of the unconscious to be acknowledged and addressed.

How did the concept of 'male hysteria' emerge?

Belief in 'male hysteria' became prominent during and after the First World War, but it was framed as 'shell shock', a more masculine term.

When was the term 'hysteria' officially removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders?

The term 'hysteria' was officially removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980.

What is the current scholarly consensus on the historical diagnosis of hysteria?

Most scholars argue that the blanket disease hysteria was always a figment of doctors' imaginations and a reflection of medical sexism.