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Hysteria

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The symptomatic return of repressed childhood sexual trauma. The two main forms of hysteria are 1) conversion hysteria, in which the symptoms are manifested on the body (eg. psychosomatic illness); and 2) anxiety hysteria, in which one feels excessive anxiety because of an external object (eg. phobias).{{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.
A form ==Sigmund Freud==It was in the course of treating [[hysterical]] [[neurosispatient]] for which no physical diagnosis can be found and s in which the symptoms presented are expressive 1890s that [[Freud]] developed the [[psychoanalytical]] method of an unconscious conflict. In conversion hysteria, the symptoms usually take a somatic form [[treatment]] (hysterical paralysis[[free association]], irritation of the throat, coughsetc.); in anxiety hysteria or phobia, the cause of the anxiety is a particular external object. Hysteria has been explained in many different ways over the centuries; the most influential aetiology or causal explanation and began to have been put forward in [[form]] the twentieth century is that supplied by major [[Freudconcepts]]'s of [[psychoanalysispsychoanalytic theory]].
[[Freud]]'s initial thesis (1896) was first properly [[psychoanalytic]] [[case]] [[history]] concerns the so-called treatment of a hysterical woman known as "[[seduction theoryDora]] which held that hysteria and other neuroses originate in an experience of actual sexual abuse that has been repressed, but which can be recovered. "<ref>[[Freud|Freud initially used hypnosis to recover these memories, but abandoned it in favor of what Anna OSigmund]]. so felicitously termed the "[[talking cureWorks of Sigmund Freud|Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria]]", 1905e. [1901]. Freud subsequently revised his original seduction theory in the course of a long correspondence with his collaborator Fliess and argued that hysteria stemmed from unconscious fantasies about incest that were bound up with [[oedipus complexSE]]VII, though he never denied either the existence or the pathogenic effects of real abuse3. </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==
[[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]].
 
==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>
 
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 [[clinic]]al [[structure]], and why he develops the idea in the 1970s that it is necessary, 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==
{{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 ==
<div style="font-size:11px" class="references-small">
<references/>
</div>
[[Category:Sigmund FreudDictionary]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:NeurosisSexuality]][[Category:Freudian PsychologyPractice]][[Category:Treatment]]{{OK}} __NOTOC__
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