Posted by Larry Hoover on January 2, 2006, at 20:44:40 [reposted on January 3, 2006, at 0:19:15 | original URL]
In reply to Re: What is Hysteria?, posted by med_empowered on January 2, 2006, at 18:21:50
> yup. Hysteria is a conceptualization of erratic female behavior that goes back a long way. In the early 1900s, some docs were doing hysterectomies to "cure" this disorder (they were also removing teeth, since decaying teeth could apparently cause mental illness as well). Now that they got rid of hysteria, there's Borderline Personality Disorder, which my friends and I sometimes call "CWF"--Crazy While Female (80% of borderline people are female).
I looked at the English etymology, and it seems the noun form was first used in 1801, and was defined precisely as: "A neurotic condition peculiar to women and thought to be caused by a dysfunction of the uterus."
I thought there was a misogynistic slant to the etymology of lunacy/lunatic, but I can't find it. I thought it was more than allegory to link moon and menses. Anybody know for sure? The original Latin is moon-struck. Hmmm.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:594628
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060102/msgs/594641.html