Talk:Hysteria

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I removed: "These come in waves every few years, the latest being carpal tunnel syndrome in the mid-1990s which "everyone had" for a time, and then stopped complaining about." When someone will present some facts about it, we can add it again. Fantasy 21:38 21 May 2003 (UTC)

I think the person was using "hysteria" ina colloquial way, not knowing anything about its technical meaning. Good cut! Slrubenstein


The "yuppy flu" reference may be unfortunate, as there seem to be moves towards recognition of it as a real disease, called chronic fatigue syndrome -- The Anome 20:19 15 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Do the terms 1800s and 1900s in the article refer (approximately) to the 19th century and the 20th century respectively? They can also refer to decades. (Indeed, in the Wikipedia, the articles 1800s and 1900s are - unfortunately - about decades.) Someone should check and change them to something unambiguous. -- Oliver P. 03:09 16 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Should mention surrealist interest in hysteria. --Daniel C. Boyer 15:03 15 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] vibrators in the 1800s

Treatment of hysteria in the late 1800s consisted of vibrators? Were they hand-cranked or powered by watermills? Is it possible to find a source for this particular gem of medical history? -- Nunh-huh 01:19, 17 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Vibrator has some more information. Ambarish | Talk 16:59, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Yeah, but it's equally naff. Vibration as a medical technology was certainly a fad, and I'm sure that some of the devices sold were put to sexual use. But that doesn't mean that doctors were routinely—to put it crudely—dildoing their female patients.
Check out this turn-of-the-century medical vibrator. A veritable humdinger! ;-) Maikel 21:24, 21 February 2006 (UTC)
Actually, it turns out that they were (except for the important vibrator-dildo distinction — the speculum, as a penetrating medical device, was far more controversial when introduced than the vibrator, so I'm sure a dildo would've be inconceivable). You might be interested in the discussion of the history of medical treatments in female hysteria. Before the medical literature switched into the vulgar there were some rather surprising Latin descriptions of treatments and their effects on female patients. — Laura Scudder ☎ 04:30, 22 February 2006 (UTC)
Were they hand-cranked or powered by watermills? Umm, steam-powered, among other things, believe it or not (The mind really does boggle ) see the Rachel P Maines book referenced in the notes Tallus 11:35, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article needs improvement

What about hysteria in psychoanalysis? What about feminist criticism of the concept of "hysteria"?

[edit] "Yuppy Flu" is an offensive term that was never in official use

This should be edited out or placed in the context of being misattributed to hysteria/psychosomatic illness. There is of course no such illness called Yuppie Flu, no ICD or UK coding for such and if it ever was used by GPs surely just to excuse to get the unfortunate patient out of the surgery as quickly as possible. The term is a pejorative invention of 1980's media (US actually I believe) which was inappropriately applied to Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, a disease described in outbreaks since the 1930's, named since the 1950's and medically accepted as a neurological disorder since 1969 by the World Health Organisation and since 1978 by the Royal Society of Medicine (Epidemic Neuromyasthenia 1934 1977. current approaches. Ed: WH Lyle and RN Chamberlain. Postgraduate Medical Journal 1978:54:637:705 774 pub: Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford). Research and demographics show that far from being an illness limited to a narrow socioeconomic population, M.E. affects all ethnic and income groups including children and has been observed in animals.

It is no less abusive to denigrate M.E. sufferers than to use or historically validate inaccurate, offensive terms for women, blacks or gays, so why is it okay for people with a serious disease? The "moral loophole" that has been perpetuated here beggars belief.

It's also spelled Yuppie, not yuppy. I reckon a yuppy would be second cousin to a guppy. Perhaps some sort of fish.

Not to mention that chronic fatigue is a syndrome, which is sort of like saying cryptopathic.

[edit] Cleanup

This article does a shoddy job of differentiating between the archaic condition of female hysteria and the modern meanings of individual hysteria (= unfounded overexcitement or anxiety) and mass hysteria (= panic). Maikel 20:32, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree, it's been on my todo list for a quite a while. I got a start by just adding in some section headings to divide the article up. — Laura Scudder ☎ 05:09, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Laughter?

'Hysterical' can mean "hilarious", and to be "in hysterics" is a common expression for being overcome with (unstoppable) laughter. But these are definitions and not really relevant to the medical encyclopedic content. Are they worth mentioning? --65.94.170.157 03:44, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

That information is important and should have its own page linked from Hysteria (disambiguation). I don't think it goes on this page. - Peregrinefisher 05:37, 27 September 2006 (UTC)