Hysteria and women
Abstract
Through the ages, hysteria has been considered to be a female disease. The author explores the historical record and concludes that the hysterical (histrionic) personality is a caricature of femininity. It develops under the influence of cultural forces, particularly male domination, and is not a natural attribute of women. He then inquires whether the concept of a distinct femininity is itself a stereotype or is based on inborn personality differences between the sexes. Citing current biological and ethological evidence, he favors the latter explanation. He suggests that the hypothesis of sex role distortion include not only the equation femininity-caricature-hysterical personality but also the cognate one, masculinity-caricature-"machoism."
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