Studyspark Study Document

History of Psychology and Hysteria 1 Essay

Pages:5 (1603 words)

Sources:1

Subject:History

Topic:Victorian Era

Document Type:Essay

Document:#95011493


History Of Psychology and Hysteria

Hysteria, symbolize women in the field of psychology during history and in many different cultures for the reason that the issues that society goes through are reflected in the area of psychology. Hysteria has been broken down into various parts in history that had to change influences on the diagnosis and its implication for women. History has shown that parallel patterns can be observed in the growth of menstruation and sexuality. Hysteria is unquestionably the first mental disorder attributable to women, precisely labeled in the second era BC. This was until Freud looked at it as being an entirely female illness. Above 4000 years of history, this syndrome was reflected from two viewpoints which were the scientific point-of-view and the demonological standpoint.

What is Hysteria?

Research shows that Hysteria was the ?rst psychological disorder that was labeled at women. This condition is known for having a catchall for disorders consisting of but by no means limited to fear, visions, emotional outbreaks and various needs of the sexual variety. Hysteria has come a long way as far as understanding of this condition. However, it is clear that even though researchers have been able to gather some information that has shown they people are beginning to find out more and more about this disorder. However, there is still some ways to go. History indicates that at one time, there were some weird things that professionals believed about female hysteria. Over the years, however, experts have been able to gather information over the years that has shown that there is much more about this mysterious condition that many are unaware of how this state operates or how long it has been around.

The actual Causes

The first mental condition attributable to women, and for which experts discover an accurate account ever since the second millennium BC, is unquestionably hysteria. Throughout the years, there have been many things mentioned about the disorder. As said by a wide-ranging history of female hysteria collected by researchers from the University of Cagliari in Italy, most of the Egyptian texts that date all the way back to 1900 BC argued the point that women's wombs mainly caused emotional disorders. They explained that the wombs moving all through the body were causing this disease. However, the ancient Greeks had the same belief as well. During the 5th century BC, it appears that Hippocrates who was the creator of western medicine ?rst invented the word "hysteria" -- from "hysteria," or uterus -- and likewise credited its cause to abnormal activities of the womb in a woman's body. The first explanation mentioning to the ancient Egyptians dates all the way back to 1900 BC and recognizes the cause of hysterical conditions in spur-of-the-moment uterus movement inside the woman body. The oldest medical document that had references to depressive conditions, traditional signs of hysteria were labeled as tonic seizures and the logic of suffocation and looming.

History shows that there has been documented grievances of female hysteria that date all the way back to the 13th century. Further research indicates that Medics of that era assumed that women had libidos and counseled them to release their sexual annoyance with the dildos. During the 16th century, doctors told the married hysterics to inspire their mates' desire. Regrettably, that almost certainly did not help to a lot of the wives for the reason that modern sexuality research apparently displays that just about 30% of women go through having some orgasm reliably from interaction. The research shows that three-quarters of women are the ones that need direct clitoral stimulus, and most interaction does not supply much. For hysteria unmitigated by husbandly lust, and for widows, and single and miserably married women, doctors were starting doing things such as advising horseback riding to help the awkward moments, which, for some, gave out enough clitoral spur to trigger some orgasm. However, riding provided a lot of women some relief, and by the time it got to the 17th century, all of these dildos were looked at as being much less of an option for the reason that arbiters of courtesy had thrived in ridiculing masturbation as somebody promoting "self-abuse."

A man named Thomas Sydenham, who was a famous British doctor, lived from the mid- to late1600s, and it was evident that he thought that crazy women ladies were moving around all over the place. As stated by Mother Jones, Sydenham once acknowledged that female hysteria -- which he credited to "crooked motions of the animal spirits," was the second most typical sickness of the time, just behind infections. Up to this era the medical revelation of hysteria, inbred from the Hippocratic-Galenic custom, endures governing. European countries in the16th century, affected by the Counter-Reformation, the religious dream tends to overwhelm the medical community. All through this period the most intense activity of the Roman Interrogation, in which magic was replacing the fight against heresy, is documented. Codronchi during this time made the point that midwives took care of the hysterical women presenting the fingers in their genital areas so as to stimulate orgasm and production of the semen. The doctor allowed this kind of treatment at all, an attitude because of the concern usual of that historical stage connected to sex and sexual repression.

Throughout history, other characteristics were involved with this disorder. For instance, for years' people thought that the fainting, explosions, nervousness and touchiness were not the only trademarks of feminine hysteria; specific core features of female sexuality, longing, and sexual irritation were likewise on the list.

At many point and times in history, the massaging of a woman's pelvis area or the genitals was incorporated by a lot a health professional as the treatment for female hysteria, subsequent in "hysterical paroxysm," or an orgasm. Research shows that though the practice dates all the way back to the Renaissance, and even before that, it turns out to be a money-maker for the medical establishment during the Victorian era. "By the early 19th century, physician-helped with convulsion was ?rmly engrained in Europe and the United States and proved a financial godsend for a lot of physicians.

As talked about earlier, vibrators were connected with a woman's hysteria. When the vibrator came on the scene in the late 19th century, it was purposed as an "electromechanical medical device" to contribute more dependable and e cient physical treatment to women supposed to be su ering from the condition for hysteria. And it was looked at as being a welcome advance in some situations. During those days, doctors "pursued every chance to exchange other strategies for their ?ngers.

All through the Victorian Age a lot of the women carried around a bottle of smelling salts. They kept them in their handbags. Most of them were inclined to blackout when their emotions were provoked, and it was supposed, that, as hypothesized by Hippocrates, the itinerant womb did not like the overpowering odor and would go back to where it came from, consenting to the woman to recover her awareness. This is looked at as being a very vital point, as it displays the way that Hippocrates' theories stayed at a point of reference for years to come.

As said by Maines' studies, at numerous points, showers that were high-pressure or hoses were likewise utilized to treat hysteria. One French doctor, writing in the mid-1800s, explained that douching became popular but at the same time it was looked at being something that was high-powered and not very good at the same time. However, some say that it has some weird effect on the skin. Some experts during those time mentioned that it caused the skin to ?ush. Other experts believed that the reestablishment of equilibrium occurs when the woman goes through this phase. Doctors during that time said that some women do not partake in certain measure during this time. The research shows that women during that time were not supposed to get involved in this hydro-treatment for more than five to six minutes at a time. All of this was very much nonsense during that era. Freud believed that hysteria was the concern of the lack of motherhood and conception. Freud reverses the example: hysteria is a condition that is caused by a void of libidinal development, and the failure of conception is the result not the reason of the disease.

It is easy to look at female hysteria as something that is comical. It is also considered something that is absurd and old-fashioned quasi-science. However, the reality is, the American Psychiatric Association did not even bring up the term until the mid and late 1950s. And using it had taken on a highly di-erent significance from its primary origins. Other research shows that "hysterical neurosis" did not vanish from the DSM. This is most of the time referred to as the bible of contemporary psychiatry until 1980. Some experts make the point that sad to say; people are still feeling the influence of this highly…


Sample Source(s) Used

References

Pearson, C. (2016, March 12). Female Hysteria: 7 Crazy Things People Used To Believe About The Ladies' Disease. Retrieved from ***

(1).pdf

Cite this Document

Join thousands of other students and "spark your studies."

Sign Up for FREE
Related Documents

Studyspark Study Document

Social Context of Hysteria in Freud's Time

Pages: 7 (1947 words) Sources: 1+ Subject: Psychology Document: #69384582

Psychology of Hysteria During Sigmund Freud's Era For a man who dedicated his life's work to furthering humanity's understanding of its own psychological processes, the revolutionary pioneer of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud remained woefully misunderstood during his own era, and has so ever since. Although Freud published a voluminous body of innovative research during his professional career as a neuropathic researcher, studying a wide array of cognitive disorders from addiction to aphasia,

Studyspark Study Document

Psychology and Behavior Discuss Antipsychotic

Pages: 5 (1555 words) Sources: 1+ Subject: Psychology Document: #39699085

Therapeutic communities are important and valuable tools, but certainly not for all patients. Often, the community is made up of a certain ward or unit of the hospital, rather than the entire facility. Clearly, some patients, such as those suffering from serious debilitating diseases such as dementia or severe schizophrenia might not be physically or mentally able to exist in such a facility. However, for others, who have specific issues

Studyspark Study Document

Post-Modern to Contemporary Psychology:

Pages: 10 (3161 words) Sources: 10 Subject: Psychology Document: #16183152

Diversity and Psychology There were two major developments that influenced the field of psychology and the professions' views regarding multicultural competence, emphasized in 2003. The American Psychological Associations' 2002 Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct and the Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice and Organizational Change for Psychologists published in 2003 both stressed the importance of moving from a mono-cultural school of thought to a multicultural perspective and that these

Studyspark Study Document

Abnormal Psychology: Theories, Issues, Diagnosis

Pages: 8 (2437 words) Sources: 3 Subject: Psychology Document: #61912524

The DSM explicitly "strives to be atheoretical, using merely observationally referent terms. The hope with this is to make the manual as acceptable as possible to professionals with different theoretical orientations (Gilles-Thomas 1989, Lecture 2). Specific criteria and systematic descriptions are offered as guidance for making diagnoses. "Essential features, associated features, prevalence rates, sex ratios, family patterns, and differential diagnoses are listed" and it is noted when "alternative or

Studyspark Study Document

Premature Sexualisation Public Hysteria or "Sex Panic"

Pages: 7 (2335 words) Sources: 6 Subject: Children Document: #43919700

Premature Sexualisation Public hysteria or "sex panic" involving the "sexualisation" of children may be getting a decent outing in Australia at the present moment, but it is certainly nothing new: fifty years ago it was Elvis Presley's hips that portended imminent moral collapse, two hundred and fifty and a dance craze called the "waltz" was considered immodest and the "emo kids" of the late eighteenth century were committing suicide after

Studyspark Study Document

History of Psychology in Many

Pages: 1 (441 words) Sources: 1 Subject: Psychology Document: #99750960

Also, later theorists were more inclined to analyze the human person, not in pathological or arrested state, but in a normal state. The input of theorists such as Karen Horney and Erik Erikson during the early part of the 20th century stressed human development from infancy to adulthood and the development of human society from a 'primitive' or collective state to today's more individualistic culture. However, theorists such as

Join thousands of other students and

"spark your studies".