Cette thèse s’articule autour de trois volets. Tout d’abord, la genèse de concept du trauma, ses effets cliniques, puis son abord psychanalytique, et enfin la conduite à tenir face à ces sujets souffrants depuis leur rencontre raté avec l’éventualité de la mort. C’est ce paradoxe, cette énigme qui fait appel à la psychanalyse pour essayer d’appréhender ce qui conduit un sujet souffrant à consulter un psychanalyste. Les catastrophes ont toujours marqué la vie des hommes. Par leur effet de surprise, et lorsqu’elles épargnent la vie du sujet, elles le laissent sous l’emprise de l’effroi y inscrivant la trace du réel de la mort. Cette rencontre blesse l’appareil psychique. Elle y fait effraction, lève le fantasme d’immortalité et y introduit l’image de la scène traumatique que FREUD nomme un « corps étranger interne ». Etranger car la mort est inconnue de l’inconscient. C’est à FREUD que revient le mérite de mettre en lumière le concept de traumatisme psychique. Le concept de trauma devient la pierre angulaire de la doctrine psychanalytique. Il l’a traverse et demeure au centre de ses travaux, la menant progressivement à prendre forme. Du traumatisme sexuel par séduction réelle, il devient fantasmatique naissant d’une mise en scène imaginaire. C’est à partir de ce concept de trauma que FREUD concevra la théorie des névroses. Puis le premier conflit mondial et le cataclysme de la guerre vinrent confronter l’humanité à l’effroi de la rencontre de la mort. Ainsi la doctrine freudienne ne va pas cesser de s’enrichir jusqu’au départ du Maître de Vienne fuyant la barbarie pour Londres, où il publiera « L’Homme Moïse et la religion monothéiste » en y reprenant le concept du trauma dans sa totalité, donnant un nouvel éclairage à la psychanalyse. / This thesis opens around a three fold questionnaire. Firstly, the genesis of the concept of traumatic, its clinical effects, then its psychoanalytic approach and finally, the actions taken against these individuals suffering from their failed encounter with eventual death. It is this paradox, this puzzle that the psychoanalysis uses to try and learn what drives a suffering individual to consult a psychoanalyst.Catastrophe has always marked the lives of men. By their effect of surprise and when theysave the lives of individuals, thus leaving at trace of the reality of terror and death. This encounter injures the psyche. It breaks the fantasy of immortality introducing the image of the traumatic science, wich FREUD named « an internal foreign body ». Strange, because death is not known to the unconscious. Freud merits the discovery of the concept of traumatic psyche. The concept of the trauma becomes the corner stone of psychoanalytic approach. Progressively this approach took form all along his work and research. The sexual traumatism by real seduction becomes fantasmatic born of a built up of imagination. From this trauma, the concept of the theory of neurosis was developped by FREUD. The doctrine of Freud does not stop developping until the Master of Vienna flees to London where he publishes « Moses and the monotheism » putting together a synthesis oh his ideas in its totality, giving a new light on psychoanalyst.

Bävergäll har använts som läkemedel i över 2500 år, både inom folkmedicin samt skolmedicin.  Inom läkekonsten kallas bävergället ofta castoreum och det är baserat på det torkade innehållet i s.k. bävergällpungar, vars starkt luktande sekret är avsett för bäverns revirmarkering. I denna kvalitativa studie undersöks bävergället utifrån ett medicinhistoriskt perspektiv och fokus ligger på Sverige fr.o.m. 1600-talet t.o.m. 1900-talets början. Denna uppsats berör bävergällets behandlings- och beredningsformer, samt varifrån man fick tag på det och vad det kostade. Uppsatsen ger en bred bild av bävergället genom historien och bävergällets mångahanda användningsområden som innefattar allt ifrån tandvärk till epilepsi. Dock var det särskilt vanligt i behandling mot olika kvinnosjukdomar såsom hysteri.  Bävergäll var ända in på 1900-talet ett officiellt läkemedel på svenska apotek och det var ett så eftersökt läkemedel att den stora efterfrågan kom att leda till bäverns utrotning i Sverige på 1870-talet. / Castoreum have been used as a drug for over 2500 years in both folk medicine and school medicine. It is based on the pungent smelling content of specific pouches of the beaver. In this study the medical use of castoreum is examined, with a focus on Sweden from the 1600s to the early 1900s. The essay describes in which ways castoreum was used as a treatment and in which forms. It tells from where you got the castoreum as well as how much you had to pay for it. This essay also presents castoreum throughout history and its wide application that includes a broad spectrum from toothache to hysteria. Castoreum was well into the 1900s an official drug at Swedish pharmacies, and it was such a sought-after drug that the high demand led to the extinction of the beaver in Sweden in the 1870s.

This essay analyzes Esther Greenwood’s identity crisis, mental illness, and recovery in Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar (1963) from a feminist psychoanalytic perspective. The purpose is to understand the cultural and psychological mechanisms behind the main character’s situation. Esther is a talented and hardworking student who dreams of a literary career in 1950’s America. At the age of nineteen, events and realizations launch Esther into an identity crisis that leads to severe depression. Why she falls ill, and the nature of her illness and recovery, are up for interpretation. The thesis of this essay is that Esther Greenwood’s identity crisis, mental illness, and recovery can be explained using a feminist interpretation of Freud’s theories of hysteria and melancholia, and the development of the differences between the sexes, which includes the Freudian concepts of castration, bisexuality, and the Oedipus complex.

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Community Psychology at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2012. / The aim of this study was to explore factors which could influence the development of mass hysteria in the high schools within the UThukela District in Kwa Zulu Natal. Being exploratory in nature, the study generated or relied on hypotheses on the possible etiological factors that could lead to the development of mass hysteria. Quantitative research, in the form of subjective psychological well – being questionnaires (AFM, SWL & Fortitude scales) were used to collect data in order to determine whether or not mass hysteria was related or influenced by them. A total number of seven hundred and nineteen (719) participants – all high school teenagers of all races - answered questionnaires in the English language. Their age range was between 16 and 19 years. The smaller qualitative research section consisted of ten (10) randomly selected teenagers from the school community. The emphasis on qualitative research was placed on asking participants about their own experiences and/or meaning of mass hysteria and actions they took to heal or recover. The main findings were that there are statistically significant differences in the way different religious groups; gender and race contribute to the incidence of mass hysteria. The results of the subjective scales demonstrated a high level of psychological well – being of a large number of participants. In the literature review it was apparent that mass hysteria is a universal phenomenon, probably arising psycho dynamically from the mind/body interface without organic etiological factors. It is a symbolic relation between the pathological phenomenon and the precipitating psychical childhood traumas. Observations from mass hysteria victims are in keeping with various theories (for discussion), therefore the confirmatory hypotheses testing is not to be seen as an efficient means of unearthing a web of belief system in various communities. There are potential relationships among various theoretical dimensions of mass hysteria. Symptoms presented by victims of (mass) hysteria are almost similar, but are expressed differently by race, gender and religion. This research has tried to give some tentative answers to the question of mass hysteria. / University of Zululand

No description available.

Many women self-report discomfort, depression, mood changes, and irritability in conjunction with menstruation which has been termed Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS). Prior to the creation of the disease/disorder category PMS, disorders with similar symptoms like “hysteria” and “involutional melancholia” were ascribed to women reporting those types of complaints. These diagnoses were based on archaic claims about women’s anatomy and behavior. Modern medical researchers contend that women’s complaints have a physiological basis, yet they cannot definitively tie PMS to any specific physiological etiological pathway, either hormonal or neurological. This thesis explores the argument that the social norms for women’s roles and their associated behaviors are related to the appearance of a disease/disorder category named PMS in the United Kingdom and the United States. Many of women’s complaints may instead be symptoms of social problems (with social remedies) related to role conflict or role strain.

The performance of X: The Rise and Fall of an Asylum Star, in conjunction with my thesis document, investigates the dichotomy of fantasy and reality for a performer. I compare the creative and emotional journey of Augustine, a young woman hospitalized for hysteria, to my own journey as an actress. Augustine was also performer, for her doctors led her in public demonstrations of the symptoms of hysteria. Her "talent" for hysteria earned her notoriety and celebrity. She was coached and directed from her doctors to enhance her demonstrations. As a result, the validity and authenticity of her state was questionable. I compare the performative qualities of hysteria with my own states of drama as a performer and draw parallels between us, looking specifically at states of experience, both imagined and real.

Hysteria has been researched from many different angles, but this thesis focuses on the persistence of gendered medical diagnoses following the demise of hysteria. In Chapter One, I provide an overview of hysteria’s long history, beginning with the first reference to the disorder in Ancient Egypt. I then conduct a study of nineteenth-century hysteria in Chapter Two, where I highlight the interactions between medicine and culture that characterized the hysteria epidemic in Victorian Britain and America. Chapter Three continues this discussion of nineteenth-century hysteria, detailing the rise of psychological explanations for hysteria in Europe. My most important research, however, comes in Chapters Four and Five where I chronicle the rise of specific diagnoses that replaced hysteria in the twentieth century. I focus on gendered wastebasket diagnoses—illnesses that predominantly affect women, are categorized based on shared symptoms rather than causes, and are defined in relation to femininity. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the descriptions of certain psychiatric conditions that are more frequently diagnosed in women contain stigmatizing language used to describe hysteria, especially in the nineteenth century. Outside of the psychiatric realm, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia are also wastebasket diagnoses that are described by both doctors and academics using the dismissive language of earlier descriptions of hysteria. I argue that throughout all of this history, the mutual influence of medical theory and cultural assumptions—particularly about gender and femininity—has allowed women’s mysterious medical complaints to remain unexplained. The ambiguous nature of conditions descended from hysteria and their association with femininity causes doctors to return to long-standing stereotypes that diminish the suffering of these patients. Many patients with these conditions struggle to access effective treatments for their symptoms. Understanding these illnesses in the historical context of hysteria can help explain and address these experiences. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / The medical field has long been influenced by its surrounding cultural context. Social factors, including gender, race, and class, all colour the ways in which illnesses are understood and patients are treated. This thesis examines these interactions between medicine and culture in the context of nineteenth-century hysteria and the related diagnoses that arose to replace it in the twentieth century. The disease entity hysteria disappeared in the early twentieth century, but patients continued to experience the symptoms associated with hysteria under a range of diagnostic titles. Situating these illnesses in the historical context of hysteria can help address patient complaints and deconstruct the stigmatizing stereotypes that affect these patients— particularly those stereotypes associated with femininity that were once attributed to hysteria patients

The primary subject of this dissertation is mental illness and performance of the hysterical symptom as they were investigated by the Swedish choreographer Mats Ek (Giselle, 1982), Tanztheater (from 1975-1979), and Second Wave Feminism. Historically, the examination begins in the nineteenth century, with the staging of madness in the romantic ballet Giselle (1841), and medical showings at Salpêtrière (1870s). The historical sites point to the interweaving of medical and dance cultures, and to a tendency towards pathologization of idiosyncratic movement expression within nineteenth century discourses on heredity, degeneration, and female health. To historically probe the ways in which twentieth century concert dance commented on pathologization of femininity, female performative labor, and expressive movement, the examination extends to: the fin-de-siècle café-concert scene; psychoanalytic sessions of 1890s, in which dancing played a role in both diagnosis and treatment; Nijinsky’s dance modernism as seen in Le Sacre du Printemps (1913); the anti-psychiatry within the post-1st World War Surrealism, and the post-2nd World War psychologically inflected choreographies by Antony Tudor, Martha Graham, Donya Feuer and Paul Sanasardo. The performance sites are investigated in relationship to the concepts of the unconscious, trauma, hysteria, hystericization, symptom, and expression. The dissertation proposes that late nineteenth century hysteria gained emancipatory meanings in the theoretical work of twentieth century dance scholarship, feminism, cultural criticism, and Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalysis. On the side of practice, Tanztheater participated in reclaiming hysteria. The Rite of Spring (1975), Bluebeard (1977), Café Müller (1978), and Arien (1979) explored traumatic memory, and male/female relationships in context of the post-2nd World War consumerist culture. I examine Pina Bausch’s and Mats Ek’s choreographies in dialogue with the contemporary theory to show that dance spectatorship can bring about an understanding of how the residues of political and personal past shape the experiences of the present. / Dance

No / The recent turn to Lacan’s work in critically-oriented Organization and Management Theory signals a welcome focus on one of the 20th century’s most influential thinkers. This article introduces Lacan’s thesis on gender, making a case for its importance for understanding organizations. We discuss two contrasting receptions to Lacan’s Seminar XX, from pro- and anti-Lacanian feminists, offer our own interpretation which can be summed up as a Lacanian inspired parody of the phallic signifier, and argue that Lacanian theorists should turn Lacan’s ideas back upon them/ourselves to question critically our own positions. Further we review Lacan’s seminar XVII and its analysis of four dominant discourses—the university, the master, the hysteric and the analyst. The advantages of the discourse of the hysteric for a Lacanian politics of gender, enabling us to undo our arguments from outside of our own gender and identity, are then identified. We thus advocate conceptual and empathetic (hysterical) bisexuality for critical scholarship within organization studies that already, perhaps unawares, is hysterical. This allows us to avoid, as much as possible, slipping into the frozen and sterile discourse of the master.