Hysteria

What was hysteria?

Hysteria a disease that dates back to ancient Greece, yet gained popular diagnostic fame in late nineteenth-century Victorian England.

The disease was said to cause a number of symptoms, ranging from stomach pains to a yearning for education, and was said to derive from the uterus. It became a catch-all diagnosis for any behavior by a woman that a doctor considered unnatural or alarming. Laura Brigg's examines relationship between the diagnosis of hysteria and social tensions about women's roles in Victorian England in her article "The Race of Hysteria: 'Overcivilization' and the 'Savage' Woman in Late Nineteenth-Century Obstetrics and Gynecology."

Treatments

In most cases, the primary treatment was to undergo pelvic massage,ù wherein a doctor would simulate the patient's genitals until achieving "hysterical paroxysm"ù which is now understood to simply be an orgasm. Eventually doctors grew tired of spending so much time stimulating their patients and began to urge women to purchase newly-developed personal vibrators. Vibrators became common household items, as show by this advertisement by Sears, Roebuck and Co. that features several vibrators among the "Aids the Every Woman Appreciates" (see bottom center of the advertisement).

Other treatments were available in Victorian England, as the radical change in medicine of the time brought about many new theories on how to cure patients of a variety or medical issues. While none were as a common practice as the manual stimulation, doctors would occasionally prescribe such treatments as injections into the uterus of a variety of substances, the removal of female genitalia (not completely unlike female castration) and slightly later in the Victorian age, the use of electric current being sent through the woman's body via the vulva.

The Rest Cure was also a common prescription. Becoming popular around the same time as the reintroduction of Hysteria into Victorian society, The rest cure was given to women who suffered any form of non-debilitating psychological problems. Women were told to "live as domestically as possible"ù which meant a complete lack physical or mental stress. The cure was rarely successful, yet was prescribed until the early twentieth century. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote a famous short story about the rest cure titled "The Yellow Wallpaper."* Jane F. Thrailkill has written an article titled, "Doctoring 'The Yellow Wallpaper'," in which she examines Gilman's motives in writing this story.

Over the course of the early 20th century, the number of diagnoses of Hysteria declined, and today it is no longer a recognized illness. While parts of the original disease are considered actual illnesses, (such a conversion disorder) Much of Hysteria's original symptoms (such as the yearning to read, in Victoria's case) are no longer considered medical problems.

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