The Return of Hysteria

This is an interesting piece of information... I think that they got the bit about Gilles de la Tourette wrong. However, I feel that it is interesting how hysteria is becoming "fashionable" again.

Perhaps you would like to initiate a debate in the blog about the return of hysteria...






The Return of Hysteria?
via Advances in the History of Psychology by Christopher Green on 1/29/12


Hysteria is a condition strongly associated with the 19th century, and with long-past historical figures such as Jean-Martin Charcot and Sigmund Freud. It was finally dropped from the psychiatric vocabulary in the mid-20th century because of its uncertain scientific basis, and because of the widespread perception that it was being used more as a way to control the behavior of women who did not conform to social norms than to label a coherent psychiatric condition.

A recent column in the New York Times, however, suggests that hysteria has made a comeback in the very same population that it was thought to be most prevalent in in times long past: teenage girls and young women. Author Caitlin Flanagan recounts the story of “a high school cheerleader” in a town near Buffalo, NY, who “lay down for a nap,” last October “and woke up changed…. facial tics, uncontrollable movement, stuttering, verbal outbursts.” She continues, “several other schoolmates have been afflicted, for a total of 14 girls. One boy reported symptoms.”

It turns out that this bizarre event was not an isolated incident. Flanagan goes on to described similar happenings in 2002, in the 1980s and in the 1960s, in the the US, the UK, the Middle East, and in Africa. Flanagan recognizes that the diagnosis of “hysteria” is “unpalatable in our post-Freudian age”; that it “is the most retrograde and non-womyn-empowering condition. She goes on, “It’s not supposed to happen anymore,… but it won’t seem to go away.”

The column concludes with an anodyne call for a “stable and supportive space in which [teenage girls can] “work out all of this drama.” But the question of whether the hysteria of old still occasionally stalks the land despite our efforts to banish it remains unanswered.

Mindfulness

I am currently partaking in the mindfulness course offered at Queen’s. I must admit, I was a bit apprehensive about attending this course. I wasn’t sure how beneficial it would be. Would it be worth spending one evening each week practicing mindfulness? 

I have learned many hard truths about myself in my short life. I have learned that I need to put myself first for I cannot expect my significant other or my family to do so especially if I do not. I have learned that my innate worth remains the same no matter what happens to me. I have learned that life is short and I need to appreciate all the good moments as they come. I have learned that I need not expect things to get better ten years from now. What matters is the here and now.

Mindfulness has taught me a few new things. Today, my second day at the course, I left feeling fulfilled. I left with an inner sense of peace and well being. I left feeling whole. No negative thoughts invaded my conscious tonight. I was mindful of the wind on my face. The cold, the sweet fusion, the wonder of taste in my mouth as I drank a strawberry milkshake on a cold winter night. I am aware of the warmth around me as I sit enveloped in my cocoon at home. I am here in the now.

I am present. 

Resident’s Retreat

This year's residents' retreat was extremely well attended, both by juniors and seniors. The day started with a round table evaluation of all the supervisors in the program, continued on to a lunch at a Greek restaurant and then after a lively discussion on several topics pertaining to our curriculum, everyone gathered for dinner at Aquaterra. Everyone got the chance to catch up as colleagues in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere with amazing food and beverages.

A Brief Guide to the DSM

The British Journal of Psychiatry’s ’100 words’ series continues with a very brief guide to the DSM psychiatric manual and its ongoing revision.

DSM is an American classification system that has dominated since 1980. It is disliked by many for reducing diagnostic skills to a cold list of operational criteria, yet embraced by researchers believing that it represents the first whiff of sense in an area of primitive dogma. It has almost foundered by confusing reliability with validity but the authors seem to recognise its errors and are hoping for rebirth in its 5th revision due in May 2013. The initials do not stand for Diagnosis as a Source of Money or Diagnosis for Simple Minds but the possibility of confusion is present.

I was very pleased to see that the British Journal of Psychiatry made quite clear that the DSM is an American invention.

The original British plans, of course, were to have psychiatric diagnoses based on measuring the stiffness of one’s upper lip – an objective and reliable approach that was sadly neglected.

Link to British Journal of Psychiatry’s DSM in 100 words.