Hysteria

Rare card · No. 48813

Hysteria is a term used to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the 19th century, female hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that the basis for diagnosis operated under the belief that women are predisposed to mental and behavioral conditions; an interpretation of sex-related differences in stress responses. In the 20th century, it shifted to being considered a mental illness. Influential physicians the likes of Sigmund Freud and Jean-Martin Charcot had dedicated research to hysteria patients. Currently, most physicians do not accept hysteria as a medical diagnosis. Today, psychiatrists may use the term to refer to behavior in which patients "imitate physical or psychological disorders of a kind that draws medical and nursing attention to them", usually as a self-deception rather than an attempt to defraud. The blanket diagnosis of hysteria has been fragmented into myriad medical categories...

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