Hysteria: this was the "women’s disorder".

What is hysteria and why Freud was interested in it? We talk about this curious phenomenon.

Under the term hysteria is a disorder difficult to define.Its symptoms appear without the need for the person to suffer any type of organic affection that justifies them. In these cases, it is conjectured that the disease finds its cause in a psychological conflict to be resolved, which converts the discomfort of the person in physical symptoms, hence it is also known as conversion disorder.

However, this diagnosis did not always this diagnosis did not always work in the same way.. Since ancient times, hysteria was considered as a disease of women, which could be manifested by any type of symptom and was caused by a great sexual repression.

What is hysteria?

The diagnosis of hysteria is what is currently known as conversion disorder, which falls under the classification of neurosis.which falls under the classification of neuroses and can be suffered by both women and men.

But this was not always the case. Throughout the history of psychiatry, the diagnosis of hysteria was reserved for women, who were treated by an intervention known as hysteria. were treated by an intervention known as "pelvic massage".". This treatment consisted of manual stimulation of the woman's intimate area by the clinician until she reached orgasm.

The science of the time theorized that women became ill with hysteria due to a repressed sexual desire, and that upon reaching this orgasmic state, which they called "hysterical paroxysm", the symptoms of hysteria gradually subsided.

These symptoms related to hysteria included from physical symptoms such as headaches, Muscle spasms or fluid retention, to psychological symptoms such as insomnia, irritability or, what they called, a "propensity to cause trouble.to psychological symptoms such as insomnia, irritability or, what they called "propensity to cause trouble".

Another relevant fact in the history of hysteria is that, thanks to this kind of disorder, the well-known psychiatrist Sigmund Freud understood that there was something beyond consciousness itself. As a result of the study of hysteria, Freud determined the existence of the unconscious, theorizing that the cause of this disorder was the repression of a traumatic event, which manifested itself in the unconscious.which manifested itself through crises that appeared without any type of explanation.

First diagnoses of hysteria

Although the diagnosis and study of hysteria reached its peak in the Victorian era, there are records of hysteria diagnoses from much earlier times.

Hysteria can be found described in ancient Egyptian records, and both Plato and Hippocrates described it at the time. During ancient Greece, the hypotheses about hysteria were based on a myth according to which the uterus was a myth according to which the female uterus is able to travel through any part of the body, causing all kinds of diseases.causing all kinds of diseases.

This myth is the one that gives origin to the term hysteria, since the root of this one has its origin in the Greek word hystera, used in ancient times to denominate the uterus.

If we go forward in time, the famous physician Galen described hysteria as a condition caused by sexual deficiency in women with passionate tendencies; and vaginal massages were already recommended as a procedure for the cure.

The rise of hysteria in the Victorian era

Given the number of symptoms that the Victorian medical community attributed to hysteria, it became the default diagnosis for virtually any condition, no matter how mild, that a woman felt.

During this era, one in four women was diagnosed with hysteria.and the list of symptoms exceeded 75 pages in some manuals. The prevailing belief was that the pace of life at the time acted as a precipitating factor for women to suffer from hysteria.

Another element that facilitated the large number of hysteria diagnoses was its easy treatment. Vaginal massage was a safe treatment, since it was impossible for the patient to get worse or die from the procedure, which was very common in the Victorian health care system.

The main disadvantage of this treatment was that it had to be performed periodically and constantly. In addition, the techniques used to stimulate the woman were tiring for the doctor, as it could take him a long time to get the woman to it could take a long time for the doctor to get the woman to reach "hysterical paroxysm", with the consequent physical fatigue.with the consequent physical fatigue that this entailed for both the doctor and the patient.

As a remedy to this inconvenience, an apparatus was invented to facilitate this task. This device consisted of a kind of mechanical vibratorwhich was placed on the woman's intimate area, thus giving rise, without anyone in the scientific community suspecting it, to today's sex toys.

Although in the beginning such devices could only be found in doctors' and psychiatrists' offices, as time went by and thanks to the spread of electricity, vibrators reached practically every home, so that women could perform the treatment themselves from the comfort and privacy of their own homes. treatment themselves in the comfort and privacy of their own homes.

It is curious that, despite the fact that the cause of hysteria was determined to be a lack of sexual activity or satisfaction, the medical community flatly rejected the idea of the vibrator as an object with a sexual purpose. A purpose that, with the passage of time, is the one that has been granted to it.

The end of this type of diagnosis

However, the fame and the advantages of the diagnosis of hysteria were not enough for it to be maintained over time. The advance of studies in psychology led to a greater understanding of the human mind, so that hysteria came to be considered as a conversion disorder, which has much more specific symptoms and can occur in both men and women.

Thus, during the early years of the twentieth century the diagnosis of hysteria declined considerably. Also partly because the medical community itself accepted that it was impossible to maintain a diagnosis within which any diagnosis could fit. a diagnosis within which every possible type of symptom could fit..

Finally, although the term continues to be used today as another way of referring to conversion disorder, its diagnosis along Victorian lines has been completely eradicated.