title: A brief history of hysteria: From the ancient to the modern.
abstract: In this paper we discuss the history of hysteria from the Babylonian and Assyrian texts through to the situation as it appears to us at the end of the 19th century. We note the shifting emphasis on causation, earlier ideas being linked to uterine theories, later speculations moving to the brain, and then the mind. We note the persistence of the condition referred to as hysteria over the millennia and the fascination that the condition has held for physicians, neurologists, and psychiatrists since the origins of known medical texts.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, UK. Electronic address: mtrimble@ion.ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trimble
authors.affiliation: Institute of Epileptology, King's College, Denmark Hill, London, UK.
authors.forename: E H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Reynolds
mesh_terms: D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D007046:Hysteria / Q000266:history*
keywords: Babylon; Briquet; Charcot; Egypt; Greece; Hysteria; Mass hysteria; Middle Ages; Rome; Sydenham; Willis; conversion disorder; psychogenic