Reading 1 (Group 1) Flashcards
Where did the word uterus come from?
“womb” or “belly”
What did people in ancient Egypt believe the uterus was the source of?
many female ailments
What did ancient Egyptians believe was wrong with the uterus if a woman was ill in seeing, suffered from pain in her eyes, or could not open her jaws?
the uterus was starved or dislocated
What did ancient greek doctors blame the uterus for?
virtually all diseases experienced by women.
What did the greeks believe was the most dangerous ailment for women? What was the rationale for this belief?
her uterus spontaneously wandering around her abdominal cavity: they believed that as the womb moved about, it put pressure on other organs and so caused serious illness, and even death.
What did hippocractes and his followers compare the uterus to?
to a living creature (“an animal within an animal”).
What did the ancient greeks believe was the trigger for the uterus wandering around the body?
largely in response to smells, causing distress and, in severe cases, hysteria
Where did the word hysterical come from?
suffering from the womb
By the 1500s what did physician no longer believe about the uterus? What was this belief replaced with?
By the 1500s, physicians no longer thought that the uterus wandered around the body. Its popularity as an explanation for physical ailments gradually dwindled, but its popularity grew as an explanation for women’s psychological ailments, including women’s ostensible “irrationality”.
In the 1500s did people believe that hysteria was something only women had? What was hysteria a catch all word for?
yes.
a catchall word for what nowadays would be considered mental health disorders, including schizophrenia, anxiety, and trauma-related or stress-related disorders.
When did the conceptions of hysteria and its causes start to shift dramatically? What was the new method? Who was responsible?
in the 19th century
Neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, and his two students Pierre Janet and Sigmund Freud, developed a
new method for treating hysteria: psychoanalysis. They recognized the existence of “male hysteria”.
Did freud believe that hysteric patients were only women?
no he argued that they could also be men
how did freud and Janet come to believe that it was early childhood experiences (nowadays would be described as sexual abuse) that led later on in life to “hysteric” physical and psychological symptoms?
By listening to “hysteric” patients and using psychoanalysis to understand their symptoms, Freud and Janet came to believe this
How did freud and janet believe you could improve hysteria?
They noted that once the connection between “hysteric” symptoms and their childhood traumatic origins became clear to the patient, the symptoms decreased and their “hysteria” often improved.
When was the uterus exonerated from being held responsible for every ailment women experienced?
in the 20th century
