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{{Top}}hystérie{{Bottom}}
==Definition==
The nosographical category of [[hysteria]] dates back to ancient Greek medicine, which conceived of it as a female disease caused by the womb wandering throughout the body (in Greek ''hysteron'' means womb).
The term acquired an important place in [[psychiatry]] in the nineteenth century, especially in the work of Jean-Martin Charcot, under whom [[Freud]] studied in 1885-6.
==Sigmund Freud==
It was in the course of treating [[hysterical]] [[patient]]s in the 1890s that [[Freud]] developed the psychoanalytical method of [[treatment]] ([[free association]], etc.) and began to form the major concepts of [[psychoanalytic theory]].
[[Freud]]'s first properly psychoanalytic case history concerns the treatment of a hysterical woman known as "[[Dora]]."<ref>[[Freud|Freud, Sigmund]]. 1905e. "[[1901] "Works of Sigmund Freud|Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria]]", 1905e. [1901]. [[SE]] VII, 3.</ref> --
==Symptomatology==The classic symptomatology [[symptom]]atology of [[hysteria]] involves physical [[symptoms]] such as local paralyses, pains and anaesthesias, for which no organic cause can be found, and which are articulated around an "imaginary autonomy" which bears no relation to the real [[structure ]] of the nervous system.<ref>{{L}} 1951b. "[[Works of Jacques Lacan|Some reflections Reflections on the egoEgo]]," ''Int. J. Psycho-Anal.'', vol. 34, 1953. p.13</ref>
However, although [[Lacan ]] does discuss the symptomatology [[symptom]]atology of [[hysteria]], linking it to the [[imago]] of the [[fragmented body]],<ref>{{E}} p.5</ref> he comes to define [[hysteria]] not as a set of [[symptom]]s but as a [[structure]].
This means that a [[subject]] may well exhibit none of the typical bodily symptoms [[symptom]]s of [[hysteria ]] and yet still be diagnosed as a [[hysteric]] by a [[Lacan]]ian [[analyst]]. --
==Neurosis==
Like [[Freud]], [[Lacan]] regards [[hysteria]] as one of the two main forms of [[neurosis]], the other being [[obsessional neurosis]].
This is true for both [[male]] and [[female]] [[hysterics]].<ref>{{S3}} p.178</ref>
==Femininity==
[[Lacan]] thus reaffirms the ancient view that there is an intimate connection between [[hysteria]] and [[femininity]].
Indeed, most [[hysterics]] are [[women]], just as most [[obsessional neurotics]] are [[men]].
The [[structure]] of [[desire]], as [[desire]] of the [[Other]], is shown more clearly in [[hysteria]] than in any other [[clinical structure]]; the [[hysteric]] is precisely someone who appropriates another's [[desire]] by [[identifying]] with them.
==Dora Case==For example, [[Dora]] identifies with Herr K, taking as her own the [[desire]] which she perceives him to have for Frau K.<ref>{{S4}} p.138</ref>
However, as the case of [[Dora]] also shows, the [[hysteric]] only sustains the [[desire]] of the [[Other]] on condition that she is not the [[object]] of that [[desire]].<ref>{{Ec}} p.222</ref>>
She cannot bear to be taken as the [[object ]] of [[desire ]] because that would revive the wound of [[privation]].<ref>{{S17}} p.84</ref>
==Treatment==It is this privileged relation between the [[structure ]] of [[desire ]] and the [[structure ]] of [[hysteria ]] which explains why [[Lacan ]] devotes so much attention to this clinical [[clinic]]al [[structure]], and why he develops the idea in the 1970s that it is necssay, in [[psychoanalytic treatment]], to "[[hysteria|hystericize]]" the [[analysand]].
==Discourse of the Hysteric==[[Hysteria]], as a clinical [[clinic]]al [[structure]], must be distinguished from [[Lacan]]s concept of the [[discourse]] of the [[hysteric]], which designates a particular form of [[discourse|social bond]].
==See Also==
{{See}}
* [[Analyst]]
* [[Desire]]
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* [[Discourse]]
* [[Neurosis]]
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* [[Obsessional neurosis]]
* [[Other]]
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* [[Structure]]
* [[Symptom]]
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* [[Treatment]]
* [[Woman]]
{{Also}}
== References ==
[[Category:Practice]]
[[Category:Treatment]]
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