Outdated diagnosis for patients with multiple symptoms of a neurological condition
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Medical condition
Female hysteria
Women with hysteria under the effects of hypnosis, 1876–1880
Specialty
Psychiatry
Female hysteria was once a common medical diagnosis for women. It was described as exhibiting a wide array of symptoms, including anxiety, shortness of breath, fainting, nervousness, sexual desire, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in the abdomen, irritability, loss of appetite for food or sex, even sexually forward behavior, and a "tendency to cause trouble for others".[1] It is no longer recognized by medical authorities as a medical disorder. Its diagnosis and treatment were routine for hundreds of years in Western Europe.[1]
In Western medicine, hysteria was considered both common and chronic among women. Even though it was categorized as a disease, hysteria's symptoms were synonymous with normal functioning female sexuality.[1] In the context of hysteria, every symptom and negative thought was linked to sex.[2] In extreme cases, the woman may have been forced to enter an insane asylum or to undergo surgical hysterectomy.[3]
^ abcMaines, Rachel P. (1999). The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria", the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 23. ISBN 0-8018-6646-4.
^Lunbeck, Elizabeth (11 May 2021), "Hysteria: The Revolt of the "Good Girl"", The Psychiatric Persuasion, Princeton University Press, pp. 209–228, doi:10.2307/j.ctv1h9dgrh.15, retrieved 6 November 2023
^Mankiller, Wilma P. (1998). The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co. pp. 26. ISBN 0-618-00182-4.
Femalehysteria was once a common medical diagnosis for women. It was described as exhibiting a wide array of symptoms, including anxiety, shortness of...
to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, femalehysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed...
associated with (gender stereotypes of) females and female sexuality in the minds of physicians.: 24 Hysteria was joined in 1866 by a diagnosis for a...
Europe, women could be medically diagnosed with a disorder called femalehysteria, the symptoms of which included faintness, nervousness, insomnia, fluid...
S2CID 38228923. Fitzharris, Lindsey (2017-04-28). "The Wandering Womb: FemaleHysteria through the Ages". Dr Lindsey Fitzharris. Retrieved 2019-12-31. Aretaeus...
He said, "Stevenson leans too heavily on the old horror staple of femalehysteria and the explanation behind the plot to spawn a tiny Antichrist is the...
mass sociogenic illness, mass psychogenic disorder, epidemic hysteria or mass hysteria, involves the spread of illness symptoms through a population...
woman to orgasm by a physician or midwife was a standard treatment for femalehysteria, an ailment considered common and chronic in women. In 1653, Pieter...
'suffocation from retained seed'), green sickness, and possibly for femalehysteria. Reported methods for treatment included a midwife rubbing the walls...
neurasthenic females ejaculation It is also described by Freud in pathological terms in his study of Dora (1905), where he relates it to hysteria. The pride...
founding evidence of physical diseases such as "womb-fury", i.e., (female) hysteria. If not cured, womb-fury would, according to doctors practicing at...
the womb and released during climax. Retention was believed to cause femalehysteria. In ancient Greek religion as a whole, semen is considered a form of...
In sociology and psychology, mass hysteria is a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions of threats, whether real or imaginary, through a population...
empirical confirmation. Some theories, such as Lysenkoism, race science or femalehysteria have been generated for political rather than empirical reasons and...
rapidly became popular for treating hysteria." Maines, Rachel P. (2012). "Vibrators and hysteria: How a Cure Became a Female Sexual Icon". The Conversation...
vibrators were initially invented as medical devices for treating femalehysteria. In the 1950s, they became more readily available for sexual pleasure...
psychological, not physiological ailments. Femalehysteria Uterine massage "Victorian doctors were not using vibrators on female patients – it was even stranger...
key feature in their recognition.[citation needed] BPPV Convulsion Femalehysteria for "hysterical paroxysm" Relapse or remission, where symptoms become...
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