Hysteria: Medicine as a Vehicle for Gendered Social Control

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dc.citation.firstpage77
dc.citation.issueNumberSpring
dc.citation.journalTitleRice Historical Review
dc.citation.lastpage90
dc.citation.volumeNumberIV
dc.contributor.authorHooper, Ginger
dc.contributor.illustratorLi, Laura
dc.contributor.illustratorLuo, Yi
dc.date.accessioned2019-05-28T17:18:35Z
dc.date.available2019-05-28T17:18:35Z
dc.date.issued2019
dc.descriptionWritten for HIST 312: Biomedical Approach to History, Dr. Moramay López-Alonso
dc.description.abstractThis paper analyzes the historical phenomenon of hysteria, a psychiatric label once commonly applied to female patients to explain a variety of physical ailments and deviant behaviors. Beginning with an examination of its ancient historical roots, the paper then focuses on hysteria’s application in Victorian England. Hysteria can be viewed as both cause and consequence of a male-dominated society and medical profession, used a means of enforcing traditional gender roles and expectations for feminine sexuality. By emphasizing and pathologizing the female reproductive organs, diagnoses of hysteria reinforced cultural ideas about women’s reproductive role and the male physician’s right to regulate that role. In these ways, hysteria is a compelling example of the socially contingent nature of illness and the power of medicine as a tool of social control.
dc.description.sponsorshipRice History Department
dc.format.extent14 pp
dc.identifier.citationHooper, Ginger. Li, Laura and Luo, Yi (illustrator). "Hysteria: Medicine as a Vehicle for Gendered Social Control." <i>Rice Historical Review,</i> IV, no. Spring (2019) Rice University: 77-90. https://doi.org/10.25611/bhyn-7q51.
dc.identifier.digitalHooper-RHR-2019-Spring
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.25611/bhyn-7q51
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/106061
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherRice University
dc.relation.IsPartOfSeriesSpring 2019
dc.titleHysteria: Medicine as a Vehicle for Gendered Social Control
dc.typeJournal article
dc.type.dcmiText
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