Hysteria is an extreme, uncontrollable emotional reaction, often involving panic, wild behavior, or mass excitement. It can happen in individuals or spread through groups.
From New Latin "hysteria," from Greek "hystera" meaning "womb," based on the ancient, sexist belief that only women suffered this condition due to a "wandering uterus." Modern medicine has rejected this idea, but the word remains.
The history of "hysteria" shows how medical language once blamed women’s bodies for emotions that anyone can feel. Today, we’d call many old "hysteria" cases anxiety, trauma, or social contagion, not some mysterious female illness.
Historically, 'hysteria' was a medical diagnosis disproportionately applied to women, rooted in the false belief that a 'wandering womb' caused emotional distress and irrationality. It was used to pathologize women's pain, sexuality, and resistance, often dismissing legitimate concerns.
Avoid using 'hysteria' to describe people, especially women; instead, use precise terms for emotions, conditions, or social dynamics without gendered stereotypes.
["panic","mass anxiety","overreaction (if accurate and non-gendered)","conversion disorder (modern clinical term, when appropriate)"]
Women patients, writers, and clinicians played key roles in challenging the hysteria diagnosis and advocating for recognition of conditions like epilepsy, endometriosis, and trauma-related disorders.
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