Hippocratic Gynecology Flashcards
hysteria
- An uncontrollable outburst of emotion or fear, often characterized by irrationality, laughter, weeping
- Very gendered term throughout the history because the majority of the time, the term is used to define a women’s condition
case of Anna O
-dealt with a case of a woman who had recently lost her father and had varying symptoms, both mental and physical
-Women were hospitalized for hysteria
-An ancient disorder
Intersection with mental and physical health
Patients that experience hysteria are of the female sex
hysterikos
Hysteria never appears in the Hippocratic Corpus but rather ‘hysterikos’ which means “things to do with the womb”
Emile Littre’s intervention through his translation because his own ideologies affected it
He interpreted the text and inferred that women are more hysterical and emotional
Uterine Suffocation
-Literally uterine strangling, suffocation of the uterus
Anna O had a severe cough
-Believed that uterus could travel to different parts of the body and thus cause breathlessness
-During this time, dissection was not occurring so unsure of the what the uterus looked like
Hippocratic Etiologies
- Diseases of women
- Older women lack moisture therefore uterus is light and can travel around the body
- Womb knows to go to moist areas in the body
- Women should not work because it maintains moisture
- Men’s bodies are already dry therefore they can do hard work
Asclepius
Hero, divinity and hero
Two skillful healer sons: Podaleirius and Machaon
Divine parentage: Apollo and Coronis
Asclepiad was a c section baby but post mortem which represents the conquering of life after death
Iconography of Asclepius
Snake wrapped around staff= Rod of Asclepius
Family of Asclepius
Hygieia (health) Where we get the word hygiene from Also associated with the snake Snake sheds skin could be a symbol for renewal Panacea (all cure) Aceso (meding) Iaso(curing) Aglaea(splendor)
Plague of Athens
Peloponnesian war
Entered into Athens through a port
Ripe for contagion in Athens because more people in Athens during the war
Don’t actually know the plague behind this
Many have speculated but unsure
Very destructive disease: marking of the body and derangement of the mind
This led to the idea of healing gods because of the stress of disease and death
Asclepion: Epidaurus
Most famous healing temple
Temples to Asclepius were formed as a response to the plague because more people were turning to the gods for help during time of suffering especially for good health
Incubation in the abaton
Different cubicles that would cause asclepius to diagnose people in their dreams
Dreams would allow you to communicate with the gods whether it was a direct diagnosis and procedure in the dream or dreams were interpreted by priests and followed through
The Iamata
- At epidaurus and different temples
- Tablets that describe miraculous cures caused by Asclepius
- Hung around the temple and presented to the temple as a gift
- Sometimes describe a dream or just how the person became well again
- Placebo effect: people were put into a frame of mind that they were going to be healed
- Propaganda for Asclepius
anatomical votives
- Present in temples
- Dedicate a part of your body that is ailing and it will cure it
- Clusters of certain temples that had many of the same body parts
- Could mean that some temples were known for curing certain body parts
- Most votives don’t have pathological problems that could represent what they wanted rather than what they had
- Still present in some Italian churches
asclepiads
Followers of Asclepius
Annual public sacrifices to Asclepius
Doctors would perform them to ensure success of their practice
Regimen IV
5th or 4th century
How doctors could interpret dreams to tailor practice to each patient
Dreams could be used for diagnosis
Text that may reflect the texts of Asclepius
Other forms of healing practices in the mediterranean
