Mad Men & Medusas

It has become fashionable in the West to argue that 'hysteria' has disappeared, indeed to challenge the notion that it ever existed. But what exactly is it, and is it in fact still with us today? Do we need the term to describe the consequences of experiences that are fundamental to the human condition in all societies and without which we lose an understanding of those experiences, for both women and men? Juliet Mitchell offers a transhistorical and cross-cultural description of hysteria, arguing that it is always a potential human condition with varying but persistent manifestations. She asserts that if hysteria has disappeared as a disease, it is the medical and psychological understanding, not hysteria itself, which has vanished. Further, she develops a major new psychoanalytic theory that stresses lateral relationships - sibling relations - over generational ones. After a sweep through the major theories of hysteria in the 20th century, Mitchell makes an impressive and convincing argument for the resuscitation of hysteria in understanding the human condition.