Women of Hysteria

i've often wondered if Freud was simply a dirty old man with too much time on his hands preying on gullible women

I understand it was called massaging the womb

Oh, Gawd, we're not going to get onto Freud now are we?

Be a bit messy

I think he may well have been a dirty old man, Tan, although he was a good psychoanalyst who also helped to discover the local anaesthetic effects of cocaine. He was, of course, influenced by studies into hysteria. However, you can't relate absolutely every neurological problem to the repression of infantile sexuality, can you?

A feminist friend of mine did a thesis on Freud and she assured me that perhaps his greatest contributions was to give names and terminology to things which had never really been discussed in a 'scientific' way before. As I understand it his psychiatric success was limited to curing only one patient who ultimately killed herself - but then I never got around to reading the thesis so I might be mistaken. [%sig%]

However, you can't relate absolutely every neurological problem to the repression of infantile sexuality, can you? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Of course not! Which are the symptoms of hysteria by the way? :)

"A psychiatric condition variously characterized by emotional excitability, excessive anxiety, sensory and motor disturbances, or the unconscious simulation of organic disorders."..........apparently. comes from the greek hystera, nicoletta. (how terribly usual for a man to name a disorder after a fundamental part of a womans anatomy) freud was just a typical victorian bloke.. however 'intelligent', he still subscribed to the unworthiness of females which was so popular at that time. bit of a t.wat really if you ask me.

oh, and perhaps interestingly (i am dredging all this up from when i studied psychology yearrrrrs ago) freuds mentor and teacher, Charcot, holds the fabulous honour of having the word "Charlatan" dervived from his name + reputation. Ha.

"A psychiatric condition variously characterized by emotional excitability, excessive anxiety, sensory and motor disturbances, or the unconscious simulation of organic disorders."..........apparently. comes from the greek hystera, nicoletta. (how terribly usual for a man to name a disorder after a fundamental part of a womans anatomy) Thank you Liana! I have to think.... you see, I had no idea.... :( Oh it sounds serious! "unconcious simulation of organic disorders" I mean. But isn't "emotional excitability" a common phenomenon? I mean don't people generally get emotionally excited? how about "excessive anxiety".... ?

Liana, I couldn't agree with you more about Freud. I suspect he was also a misogynist. a trait that has allegedly been passed down the family line, in my opinion.

I'm often mildly fascinated by illnesses that swept the world and then went out of favour - hysteria is a classic one, and to be honest if it was the only way women of the time could have an orgasm, it is no surprise that there were so many hysterical women... fainting fits is another one, though corsetry explains this in part. My favourite is the sleeping sickness that kicked about in around 1917, with a few thousand people just unexpectedly going into catapleptic comas and reviving about ten years later. Then of course there is the proper flu epidemic of 1919 that killed more people than died in World War One but never gets the attention it deserves - a sample of this flu-strain is buried in snow at one of the Poles for future study, we would be absolutely knackered if something similar came about now, as modern air-travel would allow it to spread without burning itself out.

Dance manias - also known as St. Vitus's dance. Between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries, manias swept across Europe as tens of thousands of people participated in frenzied public orgies and wild dances lasting for days and sometimes weeks. It is little wonder why psychiatrists and medical historians classify such episodes as group mental disorder affecting those overwhelmed by the stresses of the period. During outbreaks many immodestly tore off their clothing and pranced naked through the streets. Some screamed and beckoned to be tossed into the air; others danced furiously in what observers described as strange, colorful attire. A few reportedly laughed or weeped to the point of death. Women howled and made obscene gestures while others squealed like animals. Some rolled themselves in the dirt or relished being struck on the soles of their feet. An Italian variant was known as tarantism, as victims were believed to have been bitten by the tarantula spider, for which the only cure was thought to be frenetic dancing to certain music which supposedly dissipated the "poison" from their blood

...shouldn't touch dairy products and server shouldn't paste without acknowledging his source