Hysteria By Barbara Wildenboer

Description

Barbara Wildenboer

Hysteria (2022)

Altered book

46 x 54 cm (framed dimensions)

R45 000

We have seen that both the symptomatic expression of women’s malaise and the cultural specific interpretation of the same malaise witness the changing role of women. From incomprehensible Being (and therefore mean of Evil) to frail creatures that try, however, to manipulate the environment to their own ends (in Freud’s view) to creature arbiter and his fate (in the modern transformation from hysteria to melancholia), where woman seems to have traded power with loneliness and guilt (Rapetti and Carta (2012).

We have seen that both the symptomatic expression of women’  malaise and the culturally specific interpretation of the same malaise witness the changing role of women. From incomprehensible  Being  (and therefore mean of the  Evil)  to frail creatures that try,  however,  to manipulate the environment to their own ends  (in Freud’s view)  to creature arbiter of his fate  (in the modern transformation from hysteria  to melancholia), where the woman seems to have traded power with the loneliness and guilt. We have seen that both  the  symptomatic  expression of women’  malaise  and the  culturally specific  interpretation of the same malaise witness the changing role of women. From incomprehensible  Being  (and  therefore  mean of  the  Evil)  to frail  creatures  that  try,  however,  to  manipulate the environment to their own ends  (in Freud’s view)  to creature arbiter of his fate  (in  the  modern  transformation from  hysteria  to melancholia), where the woman seems to have traded power with the loneliness and guilt. We  have  seen  that  both  the  symptomatic  expression  of women’  malaise  and  the  culturally  specific  interpretation  of the same malaise witness the changing role of women. From incomprehensible  Being  (and  therefore  mean of  the  Evil)  to frail  creatures  that  try,  however,  to  manipulate  the  environ- ment  to  their  own  ends  (in Freud’s  view)  to  creature  arbiter of  his  fate  (in  the  modern  transformation  from  hysteria  to melancholia), where the woman seems to have traded power with the loneliness and guilt.

For Interferences I reconfigured an outdated Illustrated Dictionary of Sexuality dating from the 1950s. The chapters I selected were those dealing with cases of ‘female hysteria’. For a long time hysteria was used as an umbrella term to define a wide range of symptoms that included numerous and widely different symptoms, reinforcing damaging stereotypes about sex and gender.

Hysteria has a history that spans over 4000 years and over that time the occurrence was considered from perspectives ranging from science to demonology. Over this period it was mostly seen as a sex-selective mental disorder and mostly a female disease. Early manifestations were considered to be related to sorcery. Those afflicted with it were punished and burned at the stake. The luckier ones were treated with anything from herbal medicine to pioneering therapies.

It’s believed that the term had its origins with the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates who proposed that the symptoms were caused by the movement of a ‘travelling uterus’ that would move to different parts of the body. Hysteria was first described medically diagnosable physical ailment in women in 1880 by Jean-Martin Charcot. Later it aided in the development of psychoanalytic therapy with Sigmund Freud and Gustave Carl Jung treating hysterical patients and subsequently having several discussions regarding these patients.

Gendered stereotypes required that women be submissive, inhibited and docile. Hysteria was seen as something analogous to emotional instability and improper conduct for women. Foucault gives a comprehensive interpretation of hysteria in Psychiatric Power (1973-74) in which he believes psychiatry to be part of a bigger picture about power and control (Zerilli, 2015). Hysteria offered a medical explanation for that which men found unexplainable or unmanageable in women, an assumption supported by the historical (and ongoing) patriarchal dominance over medicine.

Hysteria as a psychological disorder was however removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders when the DSM III was published in 1980. Nowadays individuals presenting hysterical symptoms might be diagnosed with either a dissociative or somatic symptom disorder. Current views on hysteria see it within a socio-political context. It’s history demonstrating a shift, not only between not only the doctor and the patient but also between male and female. Hysteria undeniably seemed to have been a way to define and pathologize mysterious or unruly women.

Rapetti, M. and Carta M. G. 2012. ‘Women And Hysteria In The History Of Mental Health’, in Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health. [Online]. Available: [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232746123 ][Accessed 24 January 2022].

Zerilli, L. 2015. ‘On the Hysteric, Disciplinary Power, and Resistance’. [Online]. Available: [http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/foucault1313/2015/10/30/foucault-413-linda-zerilli-on-the-hysteric-disciplinary-power-and-resistance/]. [Accessed 24 January 2022].