Hysteria; The History of a Disease
- Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1965
Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1965. First Edition. Octavo. 24cm. Publisher's black cloth titled and decorated in gilt to spine and front board. Dustjacket. [xv]; 301pp. Clean and strong with minor bumping to spine ends; internally clean, ink ownership to front pastedown, with numerous neat underlinings in pink pencil throughout; in a clean, strong pictorial dustjacket with some marginal creasing and chipping, and a heavily sunned spine faded to a uniform grey. A very good copy, with some use.
The ownership signature is that of practising psychiatric professional Marc H. Hollander, so there was clearly method in the underlining. At the time Ilza Veith's work was the first academic treatise on the history and nature of "hysteria", and an attempt to separate fact from fable and medical ignorance. A key challenge in examining hysteria as a collection of conditions, rather than a singular disorder, is removing its gendered bias—something medical professionals have attempted since the 17th century by repeatedly demonstrating that both men and women exhibit symptoms historically attributed solely to women in the grip of hysteria.
Attention is also given to the role that religion played in obstructing the progress of medical science; pointing out the regressive influence of the church on women's mental and general healthcare through its confusion with the markers of hysteria, overlapping with the markers they appropriated or invented under the umbrella of guarding against possession, witchcraft, or heretical behaviors.
The influence of past religious pseudo-dogma in the sphere of women's health was particularly damaging when hysteria was viewed in the light of being related to sexual desire or mania triggered by absence of sexual satiation; which takes on a whole new toxic and dangerous element when children, immature adults, or otherwise vulnerable people exhibit 'hysterical' behavior.
The ownership signature is that of practising psychiatric professional Marc H. Hollander, so there was clearly method in the underlining. At the time Ilza Veith's work was the first academic treatise on the history and nature of "hysteria", and an attempt to separate fact from fable and medical ignorance. A key challenge in examining hysteria as a collection of conditions, rather than a singular disorder, is removing its gendered bias—something medical professionals have attempted since the 17th century by repeatedly demonstrating that both men and women exhibit symptoms historically attributed solely to women in the grip of hysteria.
Attention is also given to the role that religion played in obstructing the progress of medical science; pointing out the regressive influence of the church on women's mental and general healthcare through its confusion with the markers of hysteria, overlapping with the markers they appropriated or invented under the umbrella of guarding against possession, witchcraft, or heretical behaviors.
The influence of past religious pseudo-dogma in the sphere of women's health was particularly damaging when hysteria was viewed in the light of being related to sexual desire or mania triggered by absence of sexual satiation; which takes on a whole new toxic and dangerous element when children, immature adults, or otherwise vulnerable people exhibit 'hysterical' behavior.