Hysteria is a temporary state of mind called emotional excess. It is mental instability, fits of rage, and anxiety; things happen once you are affected by an illness or trauma. An emotionally charged behaviour seemed excessive and out of control due to delayed recall of trauma (connected with trauma theory), even over years and decades.

Hysteria in 1900 B.C. is known to be a behavioural disturbance to a wandering uterus in an adult woman. The name “hysteria” was given by Hippocrates as they believed it was somehow limited to women and connected to the movements of the uterus (wandering uterus); in Greek, the word for uterus is ‘hysteria’.

In the 5th and 13th centuries, the influence of Christianity in the Latin West altered the understanding and perceived it as satanic possession. However, in the 16th and 17th centuries, it was perceived as an again medical condition.

It is unmanageable emotional excesses. People often lose self-control as a fear centred on a body part erupts because of past trauma or an imagined problem. By the end of the 18th century, a dominant explanation for experiencing an altered state of identity used to be spirit possession. The older concept helped evolve the history of dissociation.

In the 19th century, Paul Briquet (a French physician) defined it as a chronic disorder. Freud emphasized the psychological origins of hysterical conversion phenomena. He claimed hidden traumas repressed in unconscious memories were converted into physical symptoms to solve.

One of the main reasons for hysteria is trauma, which discernibly comes from sexual frustration, and other causes are excessive anxiety, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, stress, dementia, mammary phobia plague, epilepsy, infertility, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even menopause is one of the leading causes of it. During the 19th century, vibrators cure women’s hysterical symptoms.

People with hysteria are socially a success yet a failure at interpersonal relationships. They tend to talk about their emotions excessively still are shallow, unhappy and self-centred when they are not the centre of attention.

Some common signs and symptoms of Hysteria are Partial paralysis, temporary blindness or tunnel vision – disturbance in senses and increased sense of taste, touch and smell. Usually, eyeball movement gets involuntary as rolling inwards and contracting facial muscle, having unnatural positions, e.g., the leg folded backwards. Having cramps, ascending abdominal constriction, Continual sighing, heavy feeling of throat blockage, Swelling of the neck, Suffocation, Headache, Clenched teeth, Voluntary tensing of muscles of locomotion, Loss of consciousness, Violent and tumultuous heartbeats, Weakness, No willpower, a tendency towards emotional instability.

There are many ways to cure this disorder as Conventional Therapy, Hypnotherapy, Homoeopathic treatment, Meditation, and Cognitive Restructuring through Psychotherapy are few methods to cure this condition. In present times, hysteria is called Conversion Disorder.

Dr Nisha Khanna is a Qualified Psychologist working as a Senior Consultant – Counselling Psychologist who proffers Online, Telephonically and Face-to-Face Counselling Services. If you live in Delhi, India or any other part of the World, you can approach her through any of these mediums. For details, visit Dr Nisha Khanna or call us at +91-9818211474