Am J Psychiatry 1982; 139:545-551
Copyright © 1982 by American Psychiatric Association
Hysteria and women
P Chodoff
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."
