They believed women were more susceptible to nervous breakdowns and ‘weak nerves’, so hysteria, as the classic ‘female malady’ had to be a nervous disease. Nearly all Victorian physicians considered women more sensitive and mentally and emotionally fragile than men. In the 1800s, hysteria was recast as a nervous disease. As anatomical knowledge improved, the idea of the roaming uterus was rejected, but medical explanations for hysterical symptoms remained vague for centuries.
He said it roamed inside women’s bodies, causing symptoms as it moved. The Ancient Greek philosopher Plato gave an explanation for hysteria in which the uterus was an animal. Anxiety, irritability and embarrassing or unusual behaviours were also noted.
Some characteristic symptoms were: shortness of breath, heaviness in the abdomen, muscular spasms and fainting. Symptoms differed from patient to patient and from one historical period to another, but they always involved both the body and the mind. Hysteria was a condition long associated with women.
