The History of Hysteria Essay -- Exploratory Essays

The History of frenzyW. Somerset Maughams The Moon and sixpence is essentially a novel about a mans struggle to free himself from the restrictions of society and to act out his most concupiscent desire--to paint. However, Maughams novel is also a story of its time and thence reflects popular theories and ideas that were prevalent at the time of its writing. Included in these ideas is Hysteria, mentioned intelligibly when the narrators describes the doctor ups view of Blanches attempt to kill herself as just a hysterical woman who had quarreled with her lover...it was constantly happening. (Maugham 123). The following go forth describe the development, symptoms and treatment of Hysteria.Hysteria, considered a neurotic illness (www.a2zpsychology.com/a2z%20guide/ furore.htm) was considered a illness in which a person, usually a woman, exhibited physical symptoms yet no physical ca mapping could be found. Coming from the Greek for uterus, or hysteria, Hysteria was thought to be re lated to the uterus or an altered menstrual cycle.Hysterias symptoms were many, but the most notable included inappropriate elation or sadness (www.healthlibrary.com/reading/ncure/chap94.htm), excessive laughing or crying followed by an abrupt return to a normal state, fainting, panic, paralysis, cramps in the body 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 at that place were four stages to a full hysterical attack 1. Tonic rigidness 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 keep their wives young and pretty and free from Hysteria. However, as Freud initiated a naked as a jaybird type of thinking in the psychiatric 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 assemble both on the medical world and the steps it took to cure it as well as the effect it had on women and their standing in society.SOURCES FOR more(prenominal) INFORMATIONwww.healthlibrary.com/reading/ncure/chap94.htm This web site provides a very terminate description of the history, causes, symptoms and cures for Hysteria.Also, for further reading, try Charlotte Perkins Gillmans The Yellow Wallpaper and former(a) Short Stories, available from Penguin Publishers.