 Water massages as a treatment for hysteria c. 1860. Female hysteria was a once-common medical diagnosis, made exclusively in women, which is no longer recognized by modern medical authorities. It was a popular diagnosis in Western nations, during the Victorian era, for women who exhibited a wide array of symptoms including faintness, nervousness, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in abdomen, muscle spasm, shortness of breath, irritability, loss of appetite for food or sex, and a "tendency to cause trouble".[1] Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 514 pixelsFull resolution (1313 × 843 pixel, file size: 164 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Scanned illustration of French pelvic douche device of about 1860. ...
Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 514 pixelsFull resolution (1313 × 843 pixel, file size: 164 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Scanned illustration of French pelvic douche device of about 1860. ...
Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her accession to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of the United Kingdom marked the height of the British Industrial Revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ...
The term symptom (from the Greek syn = con/plus and pipto = fall, together meaning co-exist) has two similar meanings in the context of physical and mental health: A symptom can be a physical condition which shows that one has a particular illness or disorder (see e. ...
Patients diagnosed with female hysteria would sometimes undergo "pelvic massage" — manual stimulation of the woman's genitals by the doctor to "hysterical paroxysm", which is now recognized as orgasm.[1] Hysteria is a diagnostic label applied to a state of mind, one of unmanageable fear or emotional excesses. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
// An orgasm (sexual climax) is the conclusion of the plateau phase of the sexual response cycle, and is experienced by both males and females. ...
Early history Hysteria's history can be traced back to ancient times; it was described by the philosopher Plato and the physician Hippocrates, in ancient Greece, and was earlier recorded in Egyptian papyri. An ancient Greek myth tells of the uterus wandering throughout a woman’s body, strangling the victim as it reaches the chest and causing disease. This theory is the source of the name, which stems from the Greek word for uterus, hystera. PLATO was one of the first generalized Computer assisted instruction systems, originally built by the University of Illinois (U of I) and later taken over by Control Data Corporation (CDC), who provided the machines it ran on. ...
For other uses, see Hippocrates (disambiguation). ...
For other uses, see Papyrus (disambiguation). ...
This article is about female reproductive anatomy. ...
A prominent physician from the second century, Galen, wrote that hysteria was a disease caused by sexual deprivation in particularly passionate women: Hysteria was noted quite often in virgins, nuns, widows and, occasionally, married women. The prescription in medieval and renaissance medicine was intercourse if married, marriage if single, or vaginal massage by a midwife as a last recourse.[1] For other uses, see Galen (disambiguation). ...
Midwifery is a blanket term used to describe a number of different types of health practitioners, other than doctors, who provide prenatal care to expecting mothers, attend the birth of the infant and provide postnatal care to the mother and infant. ...
Victorian era A physician in 1859 claimed that a quarter of all women suffered from hysteria, which is reasonable considering that one physician cataloged 75 pages of possible symptoms of hysteria and called the list incomplete[2]; almost any ailment could fit the diagnosis. Physicians thought that the stresses associated with modern life caused civilized women to be both more susceptible to nervous disorders and to develop faulty reproductive tracts.[3] In America, such disorders in women reaffirmed that the United States was on par with Europe; one American physician expressed pleasure that the country was ”catching up” to Europe in the prevalence of hysteria.[2] Vibration is life advertisement, 1910, public domain (from Der Spiegel, 1/1999, p. ...
Vibration is life advertisement, 1910, public domain (from Der Spiegel, 1/1999, p. ...
Rachael P. Maines, author of The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction, has observed that such cases were quite profitable for physicians, since the patients were at no risk of death but needed constant treatment. The only problem was that physicians did not enjoy the tedious task of vaginal massage (generally referred to as 'pelvic massage' - technically, stimulation of the Graphenberg spot): The technique was difficult for a physician to master and could take hours to achieve "hysterical paroxysm." Referral to midwives, which had been common practice, meant a loss of business for the physician.[1] The vagina, (from Latin, literally sheath or scabbard ) is the tubular tract leading from the uterus to the exterior of the body in female placental mammals and marsupials, or to the cloaca in female birds, monotremes, and some reptiles. ...
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A solution was the invention of massage devices, which shortened treatment from hours to minutes, removing the need for midwives and increasing a physician’s treatment capacity. Already at the turn of the century, hydrotherapy devices were available at Bath, and by the mid-19th century, they were popular at many high-profile bathing resorts across Europe and in America. By 1870, a clockwork-driven vibrator was available for physicians. In 1873, the first electromechanical vibrator was used at an asylum in France for the treatment of hysteria. Bath is a city in Somerset, England most famous for its baths fed by three hot springs. ...
Vibrators are devices intended to vibrate against the body (including insertion in a body cavity), thereby stimulating the nerves and giving a pleasurable and possibly erotic feeling. ...
While physicians of the period acknowledged that the disorder stemmed from sexual dissatisfaction, they seemed unaware of or unwilling to admit the sexual purposes of the devices used to treat it. In fact, the introduction of the speculum was far more controversial than that of the vibrator,[1] perhaps because of its phallic nature. A vaginal speculum, such as this Ricord-type speculum, is used to hold the vagina open for visual examinations, taking of samples, or surgery. ...
This article is about the symbol of the erect penis. ...
By the turn of the century, the spread of home electricity brought the vibrator to the consumer market. The appeal of cheaper treatment in the privacy of one’s own home understandably made the vibrator a popular early home appliance. In fact, the electric home vibrator was on the market before many other home appliance ’essentials’: nine years before the electric vacuum cleaner and 10 years before the electric iron.[1] A page from a Sears catalog of home electrical appliances from 1918 includes a portable vibrator with attachments, billed as ”Very useful and satisfactory for home service.” Image File history File links Size of this preview: 478 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1274 × 1599 pixel, file size: 366 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Scanned page of Sears, Roebuck and Company catalog, 1918. ...
Image File history File links Size of this preview: 478 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1274 × 1599 pixel, file size: 366 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Scanned page of Sears, Roebuck and Company catalog, 1918. ...
Sears, Roebuck and Company is an American mid-range chain of international department stores, founded by Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck in the late 19th century. ...
Sears, Roebuck and Company is an American mid-range chain of international department stores, founded by Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck in the late 19th century. ...
Theories on Victorian hysteria It has been argued that a major theme of the 19th century is the conflict between sex as a reproductive act and an erotic act.[4] Although the icon of the period, Queen Victoria, had a large family, fecundity rates actually declined over the course of the century. As these rates declined, the reproductive purpose of sex became less central. Much of the medical and marital advice literature of the period prominently featured the passionless woman as an ideal. The "ideal" woman would engage in sex only to reproduce, as it was supposed to hold no other allure for her. This "ideal" influenced the social structure in many ways, including providing a basis for arguments against contraception. At the same time, it resulted in sexual dissatisfaction in many women, fueling the increased demand for treatment of hysteria. Fecundity is the potential reproductive capacity of an organism or population, measured by the number of gametes (e. ...
Disappearance of hysteria as a medical diagnosis
Number of French psychiatric theses on hysteria. Over the course of the early 20th century, the number of diagnoses of female hysteria sharply declined, and today it is no longer a recognized illness. Many reasons are behind its decline: Many medical authors claim that the decline is due to laypeople gaining a greater understanding of the psychology behind conversion disorders such as hysteria, and it therefore no longer gets the desired response from society.[5] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Conversion Disorder is a DSM-IV diagnosis which describes neurological symptoms such as extreme weakness, paralysis, sensory disturbance, seizure and/or attacks that may resemble a known organic disease such as epilepsy or dystonia, but which cannot be currently attributed to neurological disease. ...
It has also been argued that all that changed was where the disease was placed by physicians. With so many possible symptoms, hysteria was always a catchall diagnosis where any unidentifiable ailment could be assigned, and so, as diagnostic techniques improved, the number of cases were pared down until nothing was left. Many cases that would have been labeled hysteria were reclassified by Freud as anxiety neuroses. Sigmund Freud His famous couch Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. ...
Today different manifestations of hysteria are recognized in other conditions such as schizophrenia, conversion disorder, and anxiety attacks. Conversion Disorder is a DSM-IV diagnosis which describes neurological symptoms such as extreme weakness, paralysis, sensory disturbance, seizure and/or attacks that may resemble a known organic disease such as epilepsy or dystonia, but which cannot be currently attributed to neurological disease. ...
An editor has expressed a concern that the subject of the article does not satisfy the notability guideline or one of the following guidelines for inclusion on Wikipedia: Biographies, Books, Companies, Fiction, Music, Neologisms, Numbers, Web content, or several proposals for new guidelines. ...
References - ^ a b c d e f Rachel P. Maines (1999). The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-6646-4.
- ^ a b Laura Briggs (2000). "The Race of Hysteria: "Overcivilization" and the "Savage" Woman in Late Nineteenth-Century Obsterics and Gynecology". American Quarterly 52: 246-73.
- ^ Regina M. Morantz and Sue Zschoche (1980). "Professionalism, Feminism, and Gender Roles: A Comparative Study of Nineteenth-Century Medical Therapeutics". The Journal of American History 67: 568-88.
- ^ Estelle B. Freedman (1982). "Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century America: Behavior, Ideology, and Politics". Reviews in American History 10: 196-215.
- ^ Mark S. Micale (1993). "On the "Disappearance" of Hysteria: A Study in the Clinical Deconstruction of a Diagnosis". Isis 84: 496-526.
Isis is an academic journal published by the University of Chicago devoted to the history of science, history of medicine, and the history of technology, as well as their cultural influences, featuring both original research articles as well as extensive book reviews and review essays. ...
See also This article is about the issues and phenomena pertaining to sexual function and behavior of human females. ...
Further reading - Katrien Libbrecht (1995). Hysterical psychosis:a historical survey. London: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1-56000-181-X.
- Mark S. Micale (1995). Approaching hysteria: disease and its interpretations. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-03717-5.
- Niel Micklem (1996). The Nature of Hysteria. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-12186-8.
- Tanya Augsburg (1996). Private Theatres Onstage (Hysteria and the Female Medical Subject). UMI.
External links - Is Hysteria Real? Brain Images Say Yes at the New York Times. (subscription)
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