Under the term hysteria is found a disorder difficult to define , whose symptoms appear without the need for the person to suffer any type of organic condition that justifies them. In these cases, it is conjectured that the illness finds its cause in a psychological conflict to be resolved, which converts the person’s discomfort into physical symptoms, hence it is also known as conversion disorder.

However, this diagnosis did not always work in the same way . From ancient times, hysteria was considered a disease that was specific to women, which could manifest itself through any type of symptom and which was caused by great sexual repression.

What is hysteria?

The diagnosis of hysteria is currently known as conversion disorder , which falls within the classification of neuroses and can be suffered by both women and men.

But this was not always the case. Throughout the history of psychiatry, the diagnosis of hysteria was reserved for women, who were treated by an intervention known as “pelvic massage “. This treatment consisted of manual stimulation of the woman’s intimate area by the clinician until she reached orgasm.

The science of the time theorized that women became ill with hysteria due to a repressed sexual desire, and that when they reached this orgasmic state, which they called “hysterical paroxysm”, the symptoms of hysteria gradually subsided.

These hysteria-related symptoms ranged from physical symptoms such as headaches, muscle spasms or fluid retention , to psychological symptoms such as insomnia, irritability or what they called “propensity to cause problems”.

Another relevant fact in the history of hysteria is that, thanks to this kind of disorder, the well-known psychiatrist Sigmund Freud understood that there was something beyond conscience. As a result of the study of hysteria, Freud determined the existence of the unconscious , theorizing that the cause of this disorder was the repression of a traumatic event , which manifested itself through crises that appeared without any kind of explanation.

First diagnoses of hysteria

Although the diagnosis and study of hysteria was at its height in Victorian times, there are records of diagnosing hysteria from much earlier times.

Hysteria can be found described in ancient Egyptian archives, and both Plato and Hippocrates described it at the time. During ancient Greece, hypotheses about hysteria were based on a myth according to which the female womb is capable of running through any part of the body , causing all sorts of diseases.

This myth is what gives rise to the term hysteria, since the root of hysteria comes from the Greek word hystera, used in ancient times to refer to the uterus.

If we go a little further back in time, the famous doctor Galen described hysteria as a condition caused by sexual deficiency in women with passionate tendencies; and vaginal massages were already recommended as a cure.

The Rise of Hysteria in Victorian Times

Given the number of symptoms that the Victorian medical community attributed to hysteria, it became the default diagnosis for virtually any condition, no matter how mild, that a woman felt.

During this time, one in four women was diagnosed with hysteria , and the list of symptoms was over 75 pages long in some manuals. The majority belief was that the pace of life at the time acted as a precipitating factor for women to suffer from the disease.

Another element that facilitated the large number of hysteria diagnoses was its easy treatment. Vaginal massage was a safe treatment, since it was impossible for the patient to get worse or die from the operation, something very common in the health system of the Victorian era.

The main drawback of this treatment was that it had to be carried out regularly and constantly. In addition, the techniques used to stimulate the woman were tiring for the doctor, as it could take him a long time to get the woman to reach “hysterical paroxysm” , with the consequent physical fatigue that this entailed for both him and the patient.

As a remedy to this drawback, an apparatus was invented to facilitate this task. This device consisted of a kind of mechanical vibrator , which was placed on the intimate area of the woman; thus giving rise, without anyone in the scientific community suspecting it, to today’s sex toys.

Although in the beginning such devices could only be found in the offices of doctors and psychiatrists, with the passage of time and thanks to the propagation of electricity, vibrators came to practically all homes, so that women could perform the treatment themselves from the comfort and intimacy of their homes.

It is curious that, despite the fact that the cause of hysteria was determined to be a lack of sexual activity or satisfaction, the medical community flatly rejected the idea of the vibrator as an object with a sexual purpose. Purpose that, with the passage of time, is what it has been given.

The end of this type of diagnosis

However, the fame and benefits of diagnosing hysteria were not enough to keep it going. The advance of studies in psychology led to a greater understanding of the human mind, so hysteria was considered a conversion disorder, which has much more specific symptoms and can occur in both men and women.

Therefore, during the first years of the 20th century the diagnosis of hysteria decreased considerably. This was also partly due to the acceptance by the medical community itself that it was impossible to maintain a diagnosis within which any type of symptom was possible .

Finally, although the term continues to be used today as another way of referring to conversion disorder, its diagnosis according to Victorian-era guidelines is completely eradicated.