The History of Hysteria Essay -- Exploratory Essays

The History of rageW. Somerset Maughams The Moon and Sixpence is fundamentally a novel about a mans scrape to free himself from the restrictions of society and to act out his most passionate desire--to paint. However, Maughams novel is also a story of its time and therefore reflects favourite theories and ideas that were prevalent at the time of its writing. Included in these ideas is Hysteria, mentioned clearly when the narrators make outs the repairs view of Blanches attempt to kill herself as retributive a hysterical woman who had quarreled with her lover...it was constantly happening. (Maugham 123). The following will describe the development, symptoms and treatment of Hysteria.Hysteria, considered a neurotic illness (www.a2zpsychology.com/a2z%20guide/hysteria.htm) was considered a disorder in which a person, usually a woman, exhibited natural symptoms yet no physical cause could be found. Coming from the Greek for uterus, or hysteria, Hysteria was belief to be related to the uterus or an altered menstrual cycle.Hysterias symptoms were many, but the most notable included inappropriate lightsomeness or sadness (www.healthlibrary.com/reading/ncure/chap94.htm), excessive laughing or shout followed by an abrupt return to a normal state, fainting, panic, paralysis, cramps in the eubstance and a sense of constriction of the throat. (www.healthlibrary.com/reading/ncure/chap94.htm) The French doctor Jean-Martin Charcot, a pioneer in the field of psychiatry in the mid-nineteenth century, insisted that there were four-spot stages to a full hysterical attack 1. Tonic Rigidity 2. clonic spasms and grand movements 3. Attitudes passionelles, or vivid physical representations of one or more emotional states 4. Final delirium-... ...n appreciates (SOURCE) and Hearsts magazine urged husbands to purchase them as Christmas gifts to restrain their wives young and pretty and free from Hysteria. However, as Freud initiated a new oddball of thinking in the psychia tric world, vibrators fell out of use and were replaced by more modern cures such as psychoanalysis.While hysteria is no longer a medical condition, it is important to note its effect twain on the medical world and the steps it took to cure it as hearty as the effect it had on women and their standing in society.SOURCES FOR MORE infowww.healthlibrary.com/reading/ncure/chap94.htm This web site provides a very complete rendering of the history, causes, symptoms and cures for Hysteria.Also, for further reading, try Charlotte Perkins Gillmans The Yellow Wallpaper and Other hapless Stories, available from Penguin Publishers.