In a recently published Oxford English Dictionary, the word hysteria is described as an “old fashioned term for a psychological disorder characterised by conversion of psychological stress into physical symptoms or a change in self awareness”. This idea of a link between the psychological and the physical is a very new one, only really first explored by Freud. The word hysteria, however, and the disease or condition for which it is the name has been around for millennia as a purely physical affliction.
It gets its name from the Greek word hystera (or hustera) meaning ‘womb’ and, as only women have wombs, it was believed by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans to be a disease which affected just women. Men who appeared to have similar symptoms were said to be suffering from a different illness, for example epilepsy. Theories on the causes, symptoms and cures for hysteria survived for the next two-thousand years and influenced each doctor’s treatment of a patient.
Causes & Symptoms of Hysteria
Some Roman doctors believed that a human’s organs, especially the womb, were mobile within the body. Opinions are conflicting; where Aretaeus describes the womb as an erratic animal, Soranus views the idea as ridiculous. A woman was said to be suffering from hysteria when she suddenly found herself unable to speak or breathe. It was understood that a womb could, without warning, move upwards within the body and press against the organs above. Romans were fully aware of internal organs and their locations within the body and therefore it was obvious to them that something was crushing the lungs and causing the woman to choke and faint. A woman’s inability to breathe was called hysterical suffocation from the Greek hysterike pnix.
Other symptoms included teeth grinding or clenching, convulsions, abdominal swelling, retraction of the uterus, a drop in body temperature, facial veins seen to be bulging, perspiration and a failed or failing pulse.
In his Gynaecology, Soranus, a Greek physician, notes that in the majority of cases “illness is preceded by repeated miscarriage, premature childbirth, long widowhood or menopause”. Although having stated that childless women are most likely to suffer from hysteria, a lack of psychological understanding at the time meant that Soranus could not grasp the possibility that a woman’s illness or hysteria, might be emotionally based. The emotional problems and stress felt by a woman unable to produce children in a society which viewed it as her purpose in life, would have often manifested itself physically it what can be most easily described as a panic attack.
Cures for Hysteria
Roman doctors argued at length over the treatment of illnesses and there were many different approaches to the treatment of hysteria.
Aretaeus claims in his Medical Writings that the uterus responds to smells outside the body. His remedy is to place something foul-smelling at the patient’s nose or something sweet-smelling at the patient’s vagina. The uterus will be repelled by the foul scent and attracted by the sweet and gradually coaxed back into its rightful place. Aretaeus also mentions that the uterus can often move below the genitals therefore it is probable that doctors took great care in ensuring that the uterus returned exactly where it belonged.
Soranus, on the other hand, instructs that a patient should be laid down in a warm, bright room. She should be awoken as carefully as possible by gently moving her jaw, straightening out her cramped limbs, calmly restraining spasms and warming her body with warm compressed and bare hands. To complete the revival, it is advised that her faced should be washed by a warm sponge. Women generally recovered quickly with a clear memory of the event. Soranus goes on to say that he strongly disagrees with men who implement the same cures as described by Aretaeus believing that the methods “irritate the inflamed areas and cause drowsiness”.
Roman hysteria is now widely believed to have been caused by the emotional stress brought on by childlessness in a society in which a woman was valued for little else. Roman men who suffered from the same illness, although for them it was, of course, believed to be completely different, were most likely to be enduring occupational stress. Life for a roman man was extremely competitive and very political, especially for those in the upper classes, and therefore failure in such a society would have been difficult to accept and could have manifested itself physically. Modern cases of hysteria are extremely rare due to a change in the demands on women and the sudden rush of psychological theory and understanding.
Sources
Aretaeus, Medical Writings
Soranus, Gynaecology
Further Reading
Ilza Veith, Hysteria: The History of a Disease
