There has not been a scientifically definitive physiology
of female anatomy until quite recently but strange images
from its ambiguous history still haunt the common
imagination and impact on women's self image. None is
stranger than the female womb.
An anatomical "reality" that persisted in Western medical
lore since ancient Greece was that the female uterus
becomes displeased and displaced, and wanders through the
body, negatively influencing the brain (I kid you not!).
"Hysteria" is derived from the Greek word for uterus.
In a fit of fury the female uterus went travelling through
the body, causing all manner of emotional disturbances -
hence hysteria, hysterical - and hysterectomy.
The mental condition of hysteria afflicted legions of women
of all ages throughout the patriarchal centuries, and was
considered the most common disease after fever. In
menopause, specifically, "the belief was that the failure
to menstruate caused the uterus to travel around the body,
eventually negatively influencing the brain".(Louis Banner
In Full Flower)
The descriptions of hysterical patients painted a terrible
caricature of the feminine. Old treatments included bed
rest, binding, beating, purging, bloodletting, and, in
worse cases, hysterectomy and/or clitoridectomy.
A kinder treatment evolved in the 19th century, when
hysteria became a veritable epidemic, especially in the
white middle classes. The doctor massaged the genitals
until there was a healing convulsion and moist spasms (an
orgasm by any other name), which relieved the patient for a
while - until the next appointment. Hysteria was considered
chronic and incurable, requiring ongoing treatment.
Electric vibrators were developed in the mid 19th century
to help the overworked doctors and ease the hysterical
women. They were even marketed to women at home for
self-treatment, and were advertised in consumer catalogues
and magazines. (There were vibrators in the house before
vacuum cleaners.) However, by 1930 vibrators had gone
underground, and were not openly advertised again until
they re-emerged as sex toys in the 1960s. (This is
according to Duana R Anderson in The wondering Uterus & A
Brief History of the Vibrator)
The treatment of hysteria was taken over by psychology, and
Freud pretty much evolved his world-shattering theories
based on his work with hysterical (and frigid) women. And,
well, we should be grateful for that.
He explained hysteria as the physical and psychological
expression of inner psychic conflicts about sexuality.
(Psyche turned into soma.) He explored his patients'
personal history for clues, practised the talking cure
(hugely innovative for its time), and developed
psychoanalysis.
In my view, these legions of hysterical women were
literally quivering with centuries of misogynist
repressions, bursting to break out of the traumatized
collective psyche; an epidemic erupting out of the
universal unconscious where the goddess of myth lay buried.
In the good doctor's own words, "The character of hysterics
shows a degree of sexual repression in excess of the normal
quantity, an intensification of resistance against the
sexual instinct (which we have already met with in the form
of shame, disgust and morality), and what seems like an
instinctive aversion on their part to any intellectual
consideration of sexual problems.
"This trait … is not uncommonly screened by the existence
of a second constitutional character present in hysteria,
namely the predominant development of the sexual instinct.
Psychoanalysis … reveals the pair of opposites by which it
is characterised - exaggerated sexual craving and excessive
aversion to sexuality."
Modern psychology succeeded in shifting hysteria from the
realm of superstition. You could say it cured the mass
hysteria; by 1952, it was officially declared a non-disease.
Freud introduced the concept of libido, the psychic energy
expressed through sexuality that lies at the root of every
living individual, and drives our desires and impulses. It
can be repressed, expressed, controlled, or transmuted. But
it exists - a priori!
Psychology helped to make conscious the compulsion of
instincts hidden in the unconscious psyche. Basically
ordinary people could now understand their behaviours and
symptoms as expressions of underlying psychic/psychological
conflict. Jung introduced the idea of the collective
unconscious, which illuminated the universality of dream
images and personal unconscious content.
The hysteric's subjugated sexuality was now the very stuff
of the modern age, just waiting for the 1960s to burst out
on to the world stage of the post-war baby boomers. The
sexual liberation of that period was a huge and abrupt
cultural change. Perhaps we forget now just how radical and
fundamental it was - this sexual break from the past.
However, before we get too satisfied with this development,
we need to ask ourselves why, with hysteria safely
unplugged, we now have a virtual epidemic of
hysterectomies, now the second most frequent surgery among
American women, with caesarean section delivery being
first. One in three women in the United States has had a
hysterectomy by age 60!
If our hysterical uteruses are no longer travelling through
our bodies affecting our brains, why are so many women
having them cut out?
----------------------------------------------------
©2007 The Hanna G Ruby material. Extracted from Sex, Age &
Menopause: a baby boomer's manifesto. Visit Hanna G Ruby on
http://www.sexageandmenopause.com and
http://blog.hannagruby.com or email
hgr@sexageandmenopause.com. "Towards a Soulful Sexuality, a
Different Menopause and a "New" Aging through healing your
sexual self."
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