Hysterical Hysteria Ep. 1: Hysteria—A Catch-All Diagnosis Used to Control Women
Hosts Sara and Gina introduce their podcast Hysterical Hysteria, explaining they met while training as genitourinary teaching associates who use their bodies to teach breast and pelvic exams, and that the show supports women, those who identify as women, and those assigned female at birth, with humor and serious discussion plus trigger warnings about assault and violence. Their first episode examines “hysteria,” describing its historical use as a patriarchal catch-all diagnosis for women, its Greek root meaning uterus, and its removal from the DSM only in 1980. They review purported symptoms and “treatments” (including marital sex, pregnancy, childbirth, and abusive “rest cures”), trace beliefs from Egypt, Greek philosophers, Romans, Christianity, Charcot’s asylum demonstrations, and Freud’s conversion disorder, and recount Marie (“Queen of Hysteria”), later thought to have psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. They connect hysteria to modern PTSD and current harms to women, then share where to find and contact the show.
00:00 Content Warning
00:45 Casual Catch Up
01:42 Workday Chaos
02:37 Birthday Week Curse
04:07 How We Met
05:41 Podcast Mission
07:13 Naming The Show
07:45 Trigger Warning Again
09:33 Hysteria Word Trauma
11:11 Patriarchy Control
14:50 Symptoms Explained
21:01 Treatments And Abuse
24:30 Meaning And DSM
26:37 Ancient Origins
29:07 Greek Philosophy Misogyny
31:09 Sexist Double Standards
32:22 Hippocrates And Healers
33:49 Miscarriage And Menopause Blame
35:28 Saints Satan And Exorcisms
38:30 Bad Air And Lazy Women
39:22 Charcot Asylum Spectacles
42:11 Freud And Modern Progress
43:40 Marie Queen Of Hysteria
56:09 Trauma Reframed As PTSD
57:01 Reclaiming Hysterical
59:31 Goodbyes And Contact Info