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"[[Hysteria]]" ([[Fr]]. ''[[hystérie]]'')  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. 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.</ref>  --  The classic symptomatology 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>Lacan. 1951b. p.13</ref> However, although Lacan does discuss the symptomatology 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 of hysteria and yet still be diagnosed as a [[hysteric]] by a [[Lacan]]ian [[analyst]]. -- 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> [[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. 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> 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 structure, and why he develops the idea in the 1970s that it is necssay, in psychoanalytic treatment, to "hystericize" the [[analysand]]. [[Hysteria]], as a clinical structure, must be distinguished from [[Lacan]]s concept of the [[discourse]] of the [[hysteric]], which designates a particular form of social bond. ==See Also==* [[Neurosis]]* [[Obsessional neurosis]] == References ==<references/> [[Category:Dictionary]][[Category:Jacques Lacan]][[Category:Terms]][[Category:Concepts]][[Category:Psychoanalysis]][[Category:Sexuality]]