TIL: The term hysteria originated back in Hippocratic times and comes from the belief that hysteria was an exclusively female disorder caused by the movement of uterus within the body (hence it shares the same root with hysterectomy). This unfounded association lasted for centuries and resulting in some bizarre treatment ideas. An older idea was to put nasty things in the mouth of the patient and flowers or perfumes around the vagina to - I kid you not - try to lure the uterus back into position when it had wandered elsewhere in the torso. More recently, hysteria was treated by orgasm. As documented in the 2011 film Hysteria, the first vibrator was invented to treat women with this disorder.
The term hysteria is no longer used clinically in medicine, having been replaced by the broad category of somatization disorders or, more acutely, conversion disorder.
So remember, if you call a joke hysterical, you're really saying it's... womb-y.
No comments:
Post a Comment