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The hidden history of female hysteria: How does it affect our understanding of mental health?
Female hysteria was once a common medical diagnosis, a term that carried with it centuries of misconceptions about women’s psychological and physiological conditions. This diagnosis covers a wide range of symptoms, including anxiety, shortness of breath, fainting, nervousness, sleep disorders, and loss of appetite or libido. Today, the medical community no longer considers it a medical disease. However, this concept has been an important cornerstone of Western medicine's understanding of women's health over the past few hundred years.
In ancient times, a woman's uterus was believed to be the source of health problems, and the word hysteria comes from the Greek word for "womb."
Early History
The history of female hysteria can be traced back to ancient Egypt. As early as 1900 BC, symptoms related to the female body were described in the Cajon Papyrus. The "wandering" uterus was first described in detail in ancient Greece, with physicians such as Hippocrates linking the phenomenon to women's health. They believed that the movements of the uterus could cause breathing difficulties and illness.
Standard treatment at the time included aromatherapy, believing that good smells could shift the uterus back into its normal position.
Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern Periods
In the Middle Ages, hysterical symptoms could also be linked to demonic possession, especially among some single and older women. Over time, this view turned into a behavioral deviation, and as health medicine developed, doctors began to accept marriage and regular sexual intercourse as the main methods of treating female hysteria, although self-treatment such as masturbation was considered taboo.
18th century
In the 18th century, the medical community began to link hysteria to brain mechanisms and gradually realized that both men and women could be affected by the disease. French physician Philippe Pinel promoted compassion as the key to treatment and began to adopt more modern diagnostic and therapeutic methods, which in the process led to a deeper understanding of women's health.
19th century
As neuroscience advanced, many doctors began to view hysteria as a neurological disorder rather than a purely physiological problem. Jean-Martin Charcot's ideas made him a pioneer in modern medicine's understanding of the condition and paved the way for later redefinition of hysteria.
Charcot's views prompted the medical community to gradually transform female hysteria from a physiological problem to a psychological problem.
After the 20th century
After entering the 20th century, Freud's psychoanalytic theory overturned the traditional understanding of female gender and mental health. He believed that hysteria resulted from inner emotional conflicts rather than physical defects. With the progress of society and the medical community, the diagnosis of hysteria was officially excluded from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in 1980 and gradually transformed into other diagnoses such as anxiety disorders.
Relationship to women's rights and feminism
In the 1980s, feminists redefined the term "hysteria" as a symbol of the systemic oppression of women. This reconstruction work shows that the oppression suffered by women throughout human history has had a significant impact on their mental health and is crucial to the diagnosis of contemporary women's health.
Performance in creative works
The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, sheds light on the mistreatment of the mentally ill and critiques the entrenched system of misogyny that existed at the time. Elsewhere, the film Safe explores the impact of sexism in healthcare on women’s mental and physical health.
Female hysteria was once regarded as a disease, but now it has become an important entry point for understanding women's rights and mental health. So how should we understand and respond to this legacy of the past when faced with the challenges of women’s mental health in modern society?
