Hysteria, or "suffocation of the mother".
OBJECTIVE
To understand or explain the surprising adherence of prominent physicians throughout the centuries to terms suggesting that the womb could move and cause suffocation, choking or difficulty in swallowing.


METHODS
Hippocratic writings on hysterical symptoms and the views of subsequent authors and contexts surrounding such views.


RESULTS
Physicians who followed Hippocrates repeatedly related difficulties in breathing or choking and difficulties in swallowing to the uterus, although most recognized that the womb did not rise out of the pelvis, except partially, when enlarged by pregnancy. Respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms were often associated with anxiety. The effects may have been attributed to the womb, because it was recognized that the womb, when enlarged, can cause difficulty in breathing. Anxiety was also reported more often in women and may have been attributed to the womb for that reason.


CONCLUSIONS
The suffocation of the mother can be understood as anxiety with dyspnea, and globus hystericus reflects anxiety with a choking sensation or difficulty in swallowing.
Merskey
H
H
London Psychiatric Hospital, ON.
Merskey
S J
SJ
D001007:Anxiety; D005260:Female; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D007046:Hysteria / Q000209:etiology / Q000266:history*; D009035:Mothers; D014591:Uterine Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000266:history*