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[Cultural relativity of hysteria as a nosographic entity. Hysteria and antisocial behavior].

In a review of the works of those authors who have dealt with this subject since the 50s, this study aims to consider the influence which certain prejudices and convictions, which are rooted in our culture, may have had on the concept of hysteria, above all with regard to the close correlation which has always been noted between this syndrome and the female sex. While, on the one hand, the analysis of sociocultural factors and of the different roles which have been established for the sexes, may help us to understand some of the peculiarities of this disease, on the other these same observations may induce us to question the existence of hysteria as a differentiated nosographical entity. In this way, for example, in Warner's opinion, a hysterical personality and an anti-social personality become two different phenomenal expressions of a single basic character disorder.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1981

A neuropsychological study of the stable syndrome of hysteria.

Ten patients with the stable syndrome of hysteria were matched for age, sex, handedness, and full-scale WAIS IQ with ten controls, ten psychotic depressives and ten schizophrenics. All were subjected to an extensive neuropsychological test battery. Compared to the controls, the hysteria group exhibited bifrontal impairment (R = L) and, globally, greater dysfunction of the nondominant hemisphere. A G analysis provided a complete separation between the hysteria and controls. However, a D-index analysis showed that the hysteria group was more impaired than normals and depressives because of greater dysfunction of the dominant hemisphere, whilst schizophrenia showed greater nondominant hemisphere dysfunction than hysteria. Further, a cluster analysis on the 40 subjects produced three clusters: normal controls, depressives, and a schizophrenia-hysteria grouping. These findings are interpreted as suggesting that dominant hemisphere dysfunction is fundamentally related to the syndrome of hysteria and that the dysfunction of the nondominant hemisphere is brought about by associated features: the female excess, the emotional instability and dysphoric mood, the presence of asymmetrical pain, and conversion symptomatology. It is further argued, in view of the familial associations, that hysteria in the female is a syndrome equivalent to psychopathy in the male (who also exhibits dominant hemisphere dysfunction) and might represent in the female a (relatively benign) variant of schizophrenia characterized by imprecise verbal communications, a subtle form of affective incongruity, together with the conversion parameter.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

On the early history of male hysteria and psychic trauma. Charcot's influence on Freudian thought.

This paper discusses the influence of Jean-Martin Charcot's views on Sigmund Freud's early theory of hysteria and the notion of psychical trauma. We consider the early history of both psychical trauma and male hysteria, for in Charcot's view traumatic hysteria and male hysteria are identical. Freud's two 1886 lectures on male hysteria, delivered after his return from Paris, are crucial to the subject because they present Freud's first impressions of Charcot and his teaching. Some of the ideas presented in the two lectures foreshadow Freud's later generalization of the etiological role of trauma and his theory of the role of psychical trauma in the genesis of hysteria; that is, each hysterical symptom is due to a psychical trauma reviving an earlier traumatic event--the so-called principle of deferred action (Nachträglichkeit). Several arguments substantiate the thesis that Freud's notion of psychical (sexual) trauma was developed in reference to Charcot's notion of traumatic hysteria, and that the early psychoanalytic theory of psychical trauma is clearly indebted to Freud's encounter with Charcot's male traumatic hysterical patients. The discussed Freudian development points out the major role of (physical) traumata in eliciting psychopathological pictures and in this way is of definite historical relevance for the present-day discussion on the traumatic nature of the so-called multiple personality syndrome and other dissociative disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorders.

Austria↗
PubMed1980

Hysteria and antisocial personality. A single disorder?

Antisocial personality and hysteria have been thought to represent a single condition. Different clinical presentations for the disorders have been attributed to cultural stereotyping and diagnostic bias. The present study carefully examines detailed psychiatric histories taken from 560 nonpatient university students. Diagnoses of antisocial personality and hysteria are based on the diagnostic criteria for psychiatric research of Feighner et al. Interviewer bias is avoided. Both disorders were present in both sexes. Hysteria was more common for women, whereas antisocial personality occurred more frequently in men. The two disorders presented with nearly equal frequency in men. Hysteria was more frequent and antisocial personality was less frequent in women than in men. The two disorders were associated for women but not for men. Specific symptoms of antisocial personality were associated with hysteria and were identified. Specific symptoms of hysteria were associated with antisocial personality, differed in some respects between men and women, and demonstrated more symptoms of depressive illness for female sociopaths. Antisocial personality, hysteria, and their combinations considered together as a possible single entity occurred with equal frequency for both sexes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Briquet's concept of hysteria: an historical perspective.

Paul Briquet's Traité de l'Hystérie was published in 1859 and is a comprehensive clinical and epidemiological study of 430 patients with hysteria. It was widely known and quoted in its time, but was submerged by the rise of the psychoanalytic concept of hysteria at the end of the 19th century. Briquet's work was resurrected in 1971 with the recommendation that the term Briquet's Syndrome be used for certain forms of hysteria. This paper translates into English those sections of his monograph devoted to his concept of hysteria and discusses these in an historical framework. Briquet regarded hysteria as a "Neurosis of the Brain" in which a variety of unpleasant environmental events acted upon the "affective part of the brain" in a susceptible and predisposed individual. He considered the brain to be the "seat of hysteria" because it was the source of the multiple manifestations of the condition. Amongst its many other notable contributions, Briquet's study finally laid to rest hysteria's historic association with physical disease of the female genitalia.

Female↗
PubMed1976

Nervousness and hysteria of mature female chickens.

A type of abnormal nervousness and hysteria, e.g., adding nests and perches to community cages and and hysteria affecting White Leghorn female chickens 35 or more weeks of age was investigated in nine experiments. Experimental flocks in which the malady consistently occurred were housed in large group (community) cages. Limited information was obtained on three cases in commercial flocks housed on the floor. Social pressure resulting from high population density appeared to be primary causative factor, with pain apparently contributing to the final break to hysteria. Claw removal at one day of age prevented hysteria but not nervousness in one experiment. Colored light, feeding added niacin or a mild tranquilizer were not successful preventives. Short term feeding of a high level of niacin, claw trimming and forced molting afforded relief in some cases while a heavy sedative was ineffective as a curative. Modification of the environment to reduce social pressure was successful in preventing nervousness and hysteria, e.g., adding nests and perches to community cages and moving flocks to less crowded housing. Strain differences in tendency to develop hysteria were demonstrated. There were positive indications of physiological changes associated with hysteria.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

[The debate over "hysteria"].

The debate on hysteria at the "Société de Neurologie" in 1908 signed the official death certificate for Charcot's hysteria, which even in his day had started to come under attack. The article by Babinski in 1901 had delivered the "coup de grâce". The debate paints an astonishing picture of the medical world of the day, and also of hysteria, which would never again present the spectacular clinical picture seen up to that point. Babinski, dominating the debate with his strong personality, prevented a discussion on the mental basis for hysteria, requested by several participants, in favour of pithiatism, which in his view offered an acceptable definition of hysteria. It is surprising that more was not made of the contradiction in terms in the expression "auto-suggestion", and of the fact that Babinski was begging the question when he asserted that it could not be asserted that a patient had been subject to suggestion! This debate effectively banished hysteria from the columns of the neurological press, whose pages it had tended to overburden. It cannot however be blamed for not having made a positive contribution to our understanding of this neurosis which, even today, remains enigmatic. It does our Society credit to have ruled out "for ethical reasons" the hypothesis of simulation.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Mass hysteria: two syndromes?

On the basis of a literature review it is concluded that mass hysteria can be divided into two syndromes. One form, to be called 'mass anxiety hysteria', consists of episodes of acute anxiety, occurring mainly in schoolchildren. Prior tension is absent and the rapid spread is by visual contact. Treatment consists of separating the participants and the prognosis is good. The second form, to be called 'mass motor hysteria', consists of abnormalities in motor behaviour. It occurs in any age group and prior tension is present. Initial cases can be identified and the spread is gradual. Treatment should be directed towards the underlying stressors but the outbreak may be prolonged. In mass anxiety hysteria the abnormality is confined to group interactions; in mass motor hysteria abnormal personalities and environments are implicated.

Anxiety Disorders↗
PubMed1989

Hysteria in children and adolescents.

Thirty eight cases of childhood hysteria admitted to a rural medical college hospital, were studied for epidemiological characteristics, clinical presentation, precipitating factors and psychosocial environment and behaviour. Hysteria was commonly seen during adolescence (73.2%) and in males (63.2%). It was more common in the lower socio-economic status (60.5%) and in children for nuclear (94.7%) and large size families (81.6%). Eldest or youngest siblings of the families were found to be more prone to develop hysteria. Motor symptoms were most frequently observed (71.1%) and 55.3% cases had more than one symptom at the time of presentation. In a majority of cases hysteria was acute in onset. Precipitating psychological event was identified in 81.6% cases; scolding (26.3%) being the commonest followed by school avoidance (13.2%), examination fear (10.5%) and quarrel with peers (10.5%). Past history of 52.6% of patients of hysteria and 18.4% of their parents revealed subtle behavioural abnormalities. All patients improved with psychotherapy and modification of the psychosocial environment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Hysteria and parental psychiatric illness.

A two-generation study of 46 families of convicted women felons showed that the daughters of sociopathic fathers had a significantly higher prevalence of hysteria than did the daughters of other fathers. The differences were significant both for daughters with hysteria plus sociopathy and for daughters with hysteria without sociopathy. The association was independent of assortative mating between sociopathic men and women with hysteria or sociopathy.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1993

Characteristics of a child inpatient population with hysteria in India.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the rate, correlates, and clinical outcome of childhood hysteria in a sample of inpatients in India. For comparison, the rate of this disorder among outpatients was computed. METHOD: Data were derived from case records of inpatient (n = 143) and outpatient admissions (n = 640) during a 1-year interval at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, South India. RESULTS: The diagnosis of hysteria was made in 30.8% (n = 44) of the inpatient and 14.8% (n = 95) of the outpatient samples. The inpatients with hysteria were mostly postpubertal, their gender distribution was approximately even, and pseudo-seizure was the most frequent presentation. These inpatients had a brief duration of illness at admission and short-term outcome was generally positive. CONCLUSIONS: Children with hysterical symptoms form a notable proportion of cases in child guidance and psychiatry clinics in India. It could be that, in this culture, having a "medical" illness is one of the more acceptable means of seeking psychiatric help. The use of a structured and intensive inpatient treatment package appeared to bring about rapid symptom remission. Some of the present findings could be the basis to explore subtypes of childhood hysteria.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Dora's hysteria and the maturation of Sigmund Freud's transference theory: a new historical interpretation.

The emergence of Freud's 1905 revision and elaboration of transference theory is situated within the context of his emerging understanding of neurosogenesis. Immediately after the seduction theory lost its credibility in the fall of 1897, Freud maintained a traumatic model for hysteria and increasingly hypothesized that repressed childhood masturbation was fundamental to the creation of hysteria. Following this interest in masturbation, Freud--influenced in part by Havelock Ellis's concept of autoerotism--put forth his first post-seduction theory model of neurosogenesis in December 1899. In this model two different developmental stages of psychosexual object relatedness-the "autoerotic" and the "alloerotic"--determined and differentiated later psychoneurotic symptomatology. This etiological schema organized the next psychopathological writing Freud did, his "Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria," in which Ida Bauer's hysteria was seen as due to oral zone autoerotic overstimulation and, later, to her object-directed genital masturbation. Freud in a postscript reasoned that in the analytic situation the production of neurotic symptoms ceases and is replaced by the creation of transferences. Hence it is argued that Freud, following his new two-tiered understanding of neurosis, expanded his formal description of transference by creating two analogous forms of transference, the "reprint" and the "revised edition."

Adolescent↗