The study of hysterical patients though full
of difficulties and obscurities, is not altogether
impossible to accomplish. hysterical patients are
easily managed, they talk willingly, and they are
not dangerous patients to deal with as many other
mental. cases are. These patients readily lend them-
selves to observation and are Always willing to be
examined. The study of hysteria is very important
as it is a singular malady, of Which everybody' speaks
and which but few physicians know well. This disease
is remarkable in its frequent , for it occurs
in over 90 females out of 1000 females and only those
who work hard escape it. Sydenham (1670) says "of
"all common diseases, hysteria, unless I err, is the
"commonest." It is very difficult to get statistics,
for the physician is rarely consulted for the minor
manifestations of the malady. it is an extremeiy
common disease and frequently gives rise to mistakes
in diagnosis. Thus, one can at once see that a
thorough study of hysteria is important and desirable
from many standpoints, - Medical., Practical,
Scientific and Philosonhical.
This singular mental disease has played a, very
great and important part in the history of all religions
and superstitions, and more so to this day
it plays amost important part in most attractive
moral questions. Great creeds have been spread by
means of the emotion caused by astounding phenomena.
which have always been due to and associated with
hysterical people.
These strange people (hysterics) raised such
admiration and gave inspiration to the crowds by
their natures and their mode of thought, their extraordinary
oblivions or resemblances and their
visions. They saw or heard what others could not
see or hear. These people had odd convictions, and
they felt and thought in another way than the bulk
of mankind. They had an extraordinary r.e]icacy of
certain senses and also had extraordinary inseneibilities,
so that they could perceive, appreciate,
and see what others could not, and they could hear
the most dreadful tortures with indifference and
even with delight. These people could do without
food or sleep for weeks or months, and they could,
se to speak, de without these natural needs. Such
hysterical subjects excited religious admiration of
people whether as prophets, witches, saints of the
Middle Ages etc. They were admired and beatified
or burnt as heretics and witches. They played a
great part in the development of religious and moral
dogmas, castes and creeds.
All these phenomena, we now know, are the
usual symptoms of hysteria. Is it not still true
that if we want to throw some light on the mysteries
of our destiny, to penetrate into unknown faculties
of the human mind, we appeal not to an ordinary person in normal health but to a highly strung neuropathic,
insensible to the things of the world but
whose sensibilities are over excited and who is over
enthusiastic in certain direction. And in our
medical terminology is this not a typical hysterical
subject?
It was the fashion for a certain time to say
that hysteria was a very rare disease for it had a
bad reputation . and a kind of dishonour attached to
it. It was thought that hysteria was frequent only
among French women but this is nonsense. Indeed
French physicians were the pioneers to thoroughly
appreciate this disease before others did. All
civilised nations are the same - they have the same
mind and the same body and the same miseries and
destinies - so that why should only the French nation
suffer from hysteria? If hystericals were supposed
to be less numerous in other countries it is because
the physicians did not recognise them, and furthermore,
even after diagnosis, they would not, give it
the proper appellation as, we have already remarked,
hysteria had a bad reputation and a kind of dishonour
attached to it. Now the time has reached when
medical men are more candid and their prejudices
have vanished, and their pride and false patriotism
have given way to scientific truth - so that we find
hysterics] s al] over the world. We must always ire -
member (i) That hysterical diseases are very bad1,
characterised from their plysicfl. point of view,
(ii) That hysterical diseases are only well characterised
from their mental and moral point of view,
(iii) That hysterical diseases are uncommonly similar
to many kinds of surgical and medical affections
for which they are so often mistaken. Physicians
have often been misled by phantom tumours of the
stomach, the ovaries and the uterus and spurious
haemoptysis. Diseases supposed to be situated in
the viscera may simulate anything. Paralysis, contractures
and ana.esthesias due to hysteria may simulate
many organic diseases and offer great difficulty
in diagnosis. We ought to do homage to Charcot for
having first called attention to these various hysterical
phenomena which were too often wrongly, ignorantly,
nay criminally dealt with by the surgeon
or physician
