Hysteria, in its colloquial use, describes a state of mind, one of unmanageable fear or emotional excesses. MIND ( Moving In New Directions) (est 1975 is an alternative education high school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Fear is an Emotional response to Threats and Danger. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific Stimulus, such as An emotion is a mental and physiological state associated with a wide variety of feelings thoughts and behaviours 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). A disease is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions and can be deadly 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. A psychogenic disease is a set of symptoms or complaints whose origin likely lies within the complex interactions of the frontal lobes of the brain and the system in which the complaint " In 1980 the American Psychiatric Association officially changed the diagnosis of “hysterical neurosis, conversion type” to “conversion disorder. The American Psychiatric Association (APA is the main Professional organization of Psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the Conversion disorder is a condition where patients present with neurological symptoms such as Numbness, Paralysis, or fits, but where no neurological explanation ” 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. Female hysteria was a once-common medical diagnosis made exclusively in women which is today no longer recognized by modern medical authorities as a medical disorder Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Medicine is the art and science of healing It encompasses a range of Health care practices evolved to maintain and restore Human Health by the This referred to a medical condition, thought to be particular to women, caused by disturbances of the uterus, hystera in Greek. The uterus (from the Latin word for womb) is the major Female reproductive organ of most Mammals including Humans One end the 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. Hippocrates of Cos II or Hippokrates of Kos ( ca. 460 BC – ca

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. Female hysteria was a once-common medical diagnosis made exclusively in women which is today no longer recognized by modern medical authorities as a medical disorder The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar Sexual dysfunction or sexual malfunction (see also Sexual function) is difficulty during any stage of the Sexual act (which includes desire, ^[1] Typical treatment was massage of the patient's genitalia by the physician and later vibrators or water sprays to cause orgasm. Vibrators are devices intended to vibrate against the body and stimulate the nerves for a relaxing and pleasurable feeling An orgasm (sexual climax is the conclusion of the plateau phase of the sexual response cycle, and may be experienced by both males and females ^[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. Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The 1920s is sometimes referred to as the " Jazz Age " or the " Roaring Twenties " when speaking about the United States and Canada The Freudian psychoanalytic school of psychology uses its own, somewhat controversial, ways to treat hysteria. Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded Psychoanalysis is a body of ideas developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and his followers which is devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and

The knowledge of hysterical processes was advanced by the work of Jean-Martin Charcot, a French neurologist. Jean-Martin Charcot ( 29 November 1825 – 16 August 1893) was a French Neurologist and professor of Anatomical pathology 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. The Cassandra metaphor (variously labelled the Cassandra 'syndrome' 'complex' 'phenomenon' 'predicament' 'dilemma' or 'curse' is a term applied in situations in which valid ^[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. ^[5]

Mass hysteria

Main article: Mass hysteria

The term also occurs in the phrase mass hysteria to describe mass public near-panic reactions. Mass hysteria, also called collective hysteria, mass psychogenic illness, or collective obsessional behavior, is the sociopsychological 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, and has been used to describe the periodic widespread reappearance and public interest in UFO reports, crop circles, and similar examples. Crop circles are patterns created by the flattening of crops such as Wheat, Barley, Rapeseed (also called "canola" Rye Also, when information, real or fake, becomes misinterpreted but believed, e. g. penis panic. Genital retraction syndrome (GRS generally considered a Culture-specific syndrome, is a condition in which an individual is overcome with the Belief that his/her

Hysteria is often associated with movements like the Salem Witch Trials, McCarthyism, the First Red Scare, the Second Red Scare and Terrorism where it is better understood through the related sociological term of moral panic. The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before local magistrates followed by county court Trials to prosecute people accused of Witchcraft in Essex McCarthyism is a term describing the intense anti-communist suspicion in the United States in a period that lasted roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s In American history, the First Red Scare took place in the period 1917–1920 and was marked by a widespread fear of Anarchism, as well as the effects of radical McCarthyism is a term describing the intense anti-communist suspicion in the United States in a period that lasted roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion A moral panic can be defined as "the intensity of feeling expressed by a large number of people about a specific group of people who appear to threaten the social order at a given

See also

• Histrionic Personality Disorder
• Female hysteria
• Mass Control a very interesting book for those interested in psychology

References

• The H-Word, Guardian Unlimited, http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,782338,00.html
• 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).

External links

• Is Hysteria Real? Brain Images Say Yes at the New York Times.