Hystories [Paperback]

Elaine Showalter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1998

This provocative and illuminating book charts the persistence of a cultural phenomenon. Tales of alien abduction, chronic fatigue syndrome, Gulf War syndrome, and the resurgence of repressed memories in psychotherapy are just a few of the signs that we live in an age of hysterical epidemics.

As Elaine Showalter demonstrates, the triumphs of the therapeutic society have not been able to prevent the appearance of hysterical disorders, imaginary illnesses, rumor panics, and pseudomemories that mark the end of the millenium.

Like the witch-hunts of the 1690s and the hypnotic cures of the 1980s, the hysterical syndromes of the 1990s reflect the fears and anxieties of a culture on the edge of change. Showalter highlights the full range of contemporary syndromes and draws connections to earlier times and settings, showing that hysterias mutate and are renamed; under the right circumstances, everyone is susceptible.

Today, hysterical epidemics are not spread by viruses or vapors but by stories, narratives Showalter calls hystories that are created "in the interaction of troubled patients and sympathetic therapists... circulated through self-help books, articles in newspapers and magazines, TV talk shows, popular films, the Internet, even literary criticism." Though popular stereotypes of hysteria are still stigmatizing, largely because of their associations with women, many of the most recent manifestations receive respectful and widespread coverage. In an age skeptical of Freud and the power of unconscious desires and conflicts, personal troubles are blamed on everything from devil-worshipping sadists to conspiring governments. The result is the potential for paranoia and ignorance on a massive scale.

Skillfully surveying the condition of hysteria -- its causes, cures, famous patients, and doctors -- in the twentieth century, Showalter also looks at literature, drama, and feminist representations of the hysterical. Hysterias, she shows, are always with us, a kind of collective coping mechanism for changing times; all that differs are names and labels, and at times of crisis, individual hysterias can become contagious.

Insightful and sensitive, filled with fascinating new perspectives on a culture saturated with syndromes of every sort, Hystories is a gift of good sense from one of our best critics.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Hysteria is tough to define, but Elaine Showalter knows it when she sees it. She argues that a host of phenomena, both medical and fantastical--alien abductions, recovered memories, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple personalities--arise from a tripartite collaboration between physicians and mental-health professionals, unhappy patients, and a voracious, gullible media. Stories that should be metaphorical ("I feel that I've been taken advantage of in some way.") become real: "I have a recovered memory of ritual satanic abuse." She makes her case brilliantly, explaining the history, causes, and reactions, but offers no pat solution. "The hysterical syndromes of the 1990s clearly speak to the hidden needs and fears of a culture," she writes. When these go away, new ones will surely crop up to reflect the anxieties of a different era. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The ends of centuries have historically given rise to increased incidents of hysterical epidemics. Literary critic and medical historian Showalter has written a challenging and insightful history of hysteria that brings us up to the Nineties. After defining hysteria, she examines the subject from three perspectives: historically, including the work of Charcot and Freud; culturally, through literature, theater, and film; and, finally, in what is likely to be the book's most controversial area, in terms of epidemics. In this last section, the author hypothesizes that many of today's syndromes, including chronic fatigue, Gulf War, recovered memory, and multiple personality, along with increased reports of satanic ritual abuse and alien abduction, should be correctly categorized as hysterias. Showalter's main point, however, is not the denial of these phenomena but rather "how much power emotions have over the body." A thought-provoking work for informed readers.?Kathleen L. Atwood, Pomfret Sch. Lib., Ct.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (April 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231104596
• ISBN-13: 978-0231104593
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,016,487 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 31 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars A Wandering Focus June 30, 2000

By Courtney L. Lewis

Format:Paperback

I really had high expectations for this book - the author worked for the Wellcome Institute of the study of the History of Medicine affiliated with Cambridge University - and I felt a historical look at how women's experience of illness (since men are rarities in the hysterical world) ties into modern conceptions of chronic illness would be particularly insightful. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the level of scholarship in this volume. Her earlier chapters centering on the development of the clinical concept of "hysteria" through the 19th and early 20th century are her strongest and best researched and the insights she makes regarding connections between influential thinkers are excellent.

Showalter ties the psychological basis of vaguely explained or ephemeral illness to more modern diseases like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome with its numerous psychological and physical symptoms and pinpoints the difficulty of many chronic illness sufferers. Namely that we "live in a culture that still looks down on psychogenic illness, that does not recognize or respect its reality. The self-esteem of the patient depends on having the physiological nature of the illness accepted. The culture forces people to deny the psychological, circumstantial, or emotional sources of their symptoms and to insist that they must be biological and beyond their control in order for them to view themselves as legitimately ill..." While this insight is excellent and, I believe, very true, what the author misses out on is the profound personal nature of the experience of chronic illness with its various ramifications....

Her final conclusion - that feminism and the feminist interpretation of the "hysteria" phenomenon has raised women's expectations of themselves without the inherent power to fulfill those expectations and that the way we should deal with this outcome is simply to study the various aspects of hysteria further - falls flat and does not seem to be well-grounded in the previous context of the book. Unless you are really interested in 19th century medical/women relationships (the one strong point of the book), I think you can miss this one. Read more ›

23 of 36 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Hystories: Ignorant of scientific fact April 18, 1997

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Showalter claims that theories legitimizing chronic fatiguesyndrome as an actual illness are "on the other side ofscience" and implies that a handful of questionable experts have legitimized the illness. While her findings serve to support her theory, her investigation misses or overlooks scientific research from peer-reviewed medical journals, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health. In reality, the CDC includes CFS on a list of "Priority 1 New and Reemerging Infectious Diseases" along with hepatitis C, malaria, and tuberculosis.

^M Showalter fails to acknowledge a wide range of peer-reviewed scientific research documenting immunological dysfunction, deficits in cognitive function, and neuroendocrine system abnormalities in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.

^M ^M Had Showalter's book been written at the turn of the century, she would have included multiple sclerosis (once known as "faker's disease") among her list of "hysterias."

^M Meanwhile, today, over half a million American adults and children are suffering from an illness which Showalter dismisses as a "psychic problem" and "coping mechanism." The former Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Philip R. Lee, wrote a public letter last fall describing CFS as a "scientifically recognized disease syndrome. . . not, as some have characterized it, some sort of psychological problem." Chronic fatigue syndrome is a complex illness characterized by incapacitating fatigue, neurological problems, and a constellation of symptoms that can resemble other disorders such as mononucleosis, multiple sclerosis, Lyme disease, and autoimmune diseases such as lupus....

^M ^M Chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome (CFIDS), is already poorly understood by the American public. Showalter plays on popular misconceptions, propagating misinformation while watching her stardom (and her book's sales) soar.

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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Arguments not well defended October 23, 2011

By T. Dreiling

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Although I agree with the conclusions of the book her arguments were not stated is a strong way. Many were just a rehash of some of the most outlandish cases, cases referred to as 'high strangeness" She does show how the media plays a big part into flaming the fires with sensational broadcasting. As it turns out not one shred of evidance has ever been verified from any of Rivera's sensational satanic cult specials, yet thousands of people entered therapy for things that never happened. She also talks about male hysteria which is seldom touched upon, So, some good points if no a terrific book.

31 of 51 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars This is a shabby piece of work. April 2, 1997

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have an agenda: I have had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for 10 years and though I am light years better than I was, I am still plagued by exhaustion and neurocognitive difficulties. These are my cards. Elaine Showalter's motivations for including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in her book Hystories are more obscure. Ostensibly, it is to help deluded creatures like me recognize that the cure for what ails us lies in Freudian psychotherapy; that if we got our psychological house in order and acquired the skills for living a protracted time on the couch would bestow, we would recognize that we were equal to the challenges of modern life and wouldn't need to hide behind the screen a chronic, debilitating illness provides. We have been aided in this by the mass media and by the support groups established for advocacy and succor. The source of our infection lies not in some bacterial or viral agent, but in our speech, our susceptibility not in some genetic predisposition or immune system stressor, but in our psyches. I think this is a fair summary of her views. There are several problems with this. A search of Med-Line will reveal a copious literature that's been written on CFS over the last 10 years or so. She discusses none of this. When she invokes a recognized authority on CFS, Dr. David Bell, a deeply compassionate man, who has never wavered in his belief in the organic basis of the illness, the archetype of the good doctor in my opinion, she distorts his words beyond recognition. Dr. Simon Wessely, a British MD, the authority of choice, whose Svengali she plays Trilby to, has been discredited repeatedly in articles she never mentions. No peer reviewed psychiatric literature has ever indicated that people with CFS were any more likely to be somatizing than anyone else. And on and on.... This is the worst treatment on the subject of this illness I have encountered. It is a rank farrago of innuendo, procrustean concept, and either inept, but more likely dishonest method. It is not scholarship but slander, slander because by her patronizing tone and tendentious methods, it is clear she has nothing but contempt for those she views as hysterical. A couple of suggestions: Oslers Web, by Hillary Johnson, provides the most comprehensive overview of the illness and how it was (mis)handled by the government, academic and professional institutions, and the media and is now available in paperback. Also, an excellent analysis of multiple personality and the sometimes problematic nature of memory is Remembering Satan, by Lawrence Wright. Both are available from Amazon. As for Showalter, caveat emptor! This one's a real stinker: get it from the library. Read more ›