Hysteria In The 19th Century

Simply gaining a place in the study of psychology was no small feat. It took countless women, over the course of many decades, just to earn the right to discuss theories of their own psyche. Now that women had a voice in psychology, it was the goal of many female psychologists to demolish the weak and incapable social image of women that male psychologists had promoted for so many decades. Even before Sigmund Freud’s implication of his degrading theories towards women, men had the power to manipulate, control, and brand women because they were the only holders of authority. The concept that women were controlled by their reproductive systems was almost regarded as fact and supported the beliefs that women were feeble and “highly nervous by
Hysteria in the nineteenth century can be explained as a “social role that reflected gendered socialization in an American cultural context” (Marshall 711). Early cases of hysteria during this time were linked to an excess of emotions that interfered with the nervous system (Crimlisk and Ron). “Although it was in many ways a real disease,” hysteria also acted as a “catch-all that explained everything that was wrong with women” (Meek 2009, 107) especially when a women acted either too feminine or too
It was becoming more socially acceptable for women to leave the domestic life and be more independent, less fixated on purity, delicacy (Jimenze). After Freud’s visit to America, causes of hysteria shifted from a biological viewpoint to a more psychological understanding. While his personal understanding of hysteria changed over the years, his initial thought was that hysteria occurs because a woman failed to rectify her penis envy. Freud believed that penis envy, or the desperate desire of a woman to make up for her lack of a penis, was normally satisfied through her reproduction. It was believed that hysteria was the result of a women not having children and becoming hysterical from penis envy (Deverux; Tasca et al.). Twentieth century causes of hysteria ranged from theories of internal psychoanalytical sexual conflicts to the notion that hysteria was cause by oppression (Jimenez 159). Hysteria changed immensely after Freud’s first appearance in America the early twentieth century, presumably due the rise of the flapper in the