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==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]]. "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria]]", 1905e. [1901]. [[SE]] VII, 3.</ref>
==Symptomatology==
The classic [[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 on the Ego]]," ''Int. J. [[Psycho]]-[[Anal]].'', vol. 34, 1953. p. 13</ref>.
However, although [[Lacan]] does discuss the [[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 ]] [[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]].
In the [[seminar]] of 1955-6 [[Lacan]] develops the [[idea ]] that the [[structure]] of [[neurosis]] is that of a question, and that what differentiates [[hysteria]] from [[obsessional neurosis]] is the [[nature ]] of this question.
Whereas [[obsessional neurosis]] concerns the question of the [[subject]]'s [[existence]], [[hysteria]] concerns the question of the [[subject]]'s [[sexual position]].
This question may be phrased "Am I a [[man]] or a [[woman]]?" or, more precisely, "What is a [[woman]]?"<ref>{{S3}} p.170-5</ref>
This is [[true ]] for both [[male]] and [[female]] [[hysterics]].<ref>{{S3}} p.178</ref>
==Femininity==
==Structure==
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>
==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 [[clinic]]al [[structure]], and why he develops the idea in the 1970s that it is necssaynecessary, in [[psychoanalytic treatment]], to "[[hysteria|hystericize]]" the [[analysand]].
==Discourse of the Hysteric==
[[Hysteria]], as a [[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==
