A Brief History of Hysteria

In search of a cure for the outspoken woman.

Image: “The Hysterical Woman,” Women’s Museum of California

“Not only is the actual word Hysteria gendered — it once referred to an exclusively female disease, a mental illness thought to be caused by a malfunctioning uterus.

There is a very long history of critics using accusations or innuendo about women’s mental health or emotional stability in order to shut down their political voices.“

— Sady Doyle

Much of human behavior is shaped by gendered constructs. In different cultures over time, sexuality has been constructed differently, and gender definitions have included different behaviors. In many ways, gender is a fiction- but in the fact of history, power, technology, and, of course, their tool medicine- it is a very real fact that shaped values, identity, economies, and lives.

Medicine and science, despite our modern obsession with empiricism, are not comprised of absolute facts, but rather changing definitions that exist within cultures to mitigate complex dynamics and resolve social problems, desires, or constructions of reality. Medicine and science, by the nature of their…