What is hysteria: a disease or is it the norm? This psychological disorder is more typical for women, but it also manifests itself in men. What are the symptoms and what treatment is possible in case of hysteria? The presented article will answer a number of questions regarding this phenomenon.
The phenomenon of hysteria has gained its fame since the ancient times of Dr. Hippocrates. It was understood as a whole group of neuroses that belonged to diseases of the uterus (hysteron). Intensive research into this mental disorder began in the late 19th century. Its name is hysteria. Women's symptoms have become the preferred material for scientists.
Scientific research
P. Janet and J. M. Charcot began to study this disease. Under the influence of the latter, Z. Freud and J. Breuer began to study the mental mechanisms of hysteria. Z. Freud made a huge contribution to the development of such a phenomenon as hysteria. He saw treatment in a new method invented by him - psychoanalysis. The psychologist also identified the psychological defense mechanisms that we need in the event of an internal conflict that has arisen. itrepression, identification, transference, denial. Z. Freud said that if the mechanisms cannot eliminate the conflict, hysteria sets in. He also saw reasons in repressed ideas and memories that are erotic in nature and are expressed in bodily symptoms.
In general, Z. Freud had his own developed classification of psychoneuroses. He singled out hysterical neuroses and obsessional neuroses. They differ from anxiety neurosis, since the latter arises after an unsuccessful erotic experience, but psychoneuroses are provoked by early childhood conflicts.
Two kinds of hysteria
Z. Freud also distinguished two types in the phenomenon of hysteria. Both cases have a common basic feature of the concept of "hysteria". The disease arises as a result of the action of such a protective mechanism as the displacement of an unfolding internal conflict.
Conversion hysteria involves the patient trying to deal with internal conflict by turning it into bodily expressions or dissociation. Hysteria of fear does not allow the human self to overcome fear due to the presence of obsessive and phobic mechanisms. Phobic neurosis is another name for this kind of hysteria phenomenon. The reasons for the renaming are quite clear.
Characteristics of conversion hysteria
Has a variety of conversion hysteria symptoms. Her treatment takes place in the office of a psychoanalyst, who first of all reveals the severity of manifestations.
First, there are bodily symptoms. They are very changeable in their essence and in this case they are connected not with anatomical or physiological disorders, but with mental phenomena.
Secondly, external emotional indifference. Is a very serious symptom.
Third, episodic mental states - hysterical seizures. They can be either an independent expression or combined with the above symptoms. Seizures involve a bifurcation of some of the functions of the psyche.
Often such seizures are accompanied by female hysteria. The symptoms in women also include complex fantasy stories and dreams that are amenable to analysis. They are the result of distortions that occur due to the impact of protective mechanisms.
A number of striking bodily symptoms are represented by conversion hysteria. Women experience motor, visceral or sensory disturbances: pain, deafness, tremor, blindness, paralysis, vomiting. But these symptoms are false. They are not confirmation of anatomical and physiological disorders. But tantrums have the full conviction that their symptom is serious and quite real.
Hysterical symptoms occur when conflicts awaken, which took place during the period of psychosexual development of a person. Dangerous is the desire of the mother or father (depending on the sex of the child), which imposes an incestuous ban. According to Z. Freud, some types of hysteria also depend on pregenital conflicts, namely oral ones.
Psychologicalprotection
The main types of psychological defense mechanisms include identification, regression and repression. With their help, the psyche tries to cope with children's conflicts and suppresses unconscious fantasies, lowering them below the level of consciousness. In this way, the personality maintains its integrity.
Syndromes differ in the individual characteristics of such a disease as hysteria. Treatment consists in the fact that with the help of psychotherapy, the doctor reveals the pathogenic pattern. Internal conflicts also affect the formation of personality. If the disease does not manifest itself, then the formation of a hysterical character may simply occur. Theatrical demonstrativeness, coquettishness, labile mood, a tendency to respond to unconscious fantasy - this is hysteria. Women also express a fear of sexual contact with a bright defiant behavior.
Varieties of hysteria
The presented disorder has its own characteristics depending on gender. The first variety is hysteria in children. Symptoms appear in the form of an acute reaction to fear, which has no reason. It also happens that hysterical fits arise due to parental punishment. When parents realize their own mistakes, change the form of punishment, then hysterical fits pass.
In adolescence, hysteria is observed in weak-willed girls and boys who do not want to hear about the refusal to fulfill their desires, unaccustomed to work. These teenagers manipulate adults withhis illness.
Male hysteria
Dr. J. Charcot, in addition to studying women's ailments, observed cases of such a disease as hysteria in men. The symptoms of this disorder were previously thought to be purely feminine.
Scientist J. Charcot significantly influenced Z. Freud with demonstrations of male hysteria. He showed that hysterical paralysis could be provoked with the help of hypnosis and the hysterical symptoms could be eliminated.
Returning from Paris, an enthusiastic Z. Freud presented a speech "On hysteria in men", in which he spoke about the results of research by J. Charcot. But the Viennese doctors were rather restrained in their judgments and suggested that Z. Freud himself study and demonstrate such a case. Clinical observation by a psychiatrist led nowhere, as the scientific community in Vienna remained uninterested in male hysteria.
Female hysteria
The third type of this disorder is female hysteria. Symptoms in women take their origins in hormonal metabolic processes. In this regard, the disease is associated with the activity of the sex glands that produce steroids. These substances affect the mood of a woman during the menstrual period. Hormonal surges during puberty and the postpartum period cause such a disorder as hysteria. Symptoms in a woman are characterized not only by the physiological side, but also by the behavioral side. Women strive to win everyone's attention, admiration, envy and surprise. They invent different stories and stories, dress provocatively. Their mood changes quickly. If the case is more severe, then there may beparalysis or paresis, and then women need help in moving.
The patient's head may twitch for no reason. Speech is often disturbed, stuttering, dumbness, spasms of the esophagus, hiccups appear. From the outside it seems that patients behave ridiculously.
Female hysterical seizures are characterized by sudden movements, screams, screams. The patient is tearing out her hair, crying. A sharp sound, cotton, severe pain and cold water can stop such an attack. Hysteria dims consciousness a little, but the patient remembers all the events.
Hysterical neurosis: treatment
All treatment for hysteria is to eliminate the source of internal conflict. Psychotherapy is an indispensable method. The main techniques used in the treatment are hypnosis, training, suggestion.
During hypnosis, the doctor can use the method of free association, which can be used to isolate the chain of associations that link the primary pathogenic pattern to the symptom. This procedure can take a long time, since unraveling the associative chains is not an easy task. The doctor finds out the properties of the patient's character, the importance of certain motives. Also, the psychoanalyst overcomes the resistance of the patient, who does not want to reproduce the traumatic events at all.
It is worth noting that such a direction as psychoanalysis does not provide for mechanical role play. A person must remove all masks and appear as he is. Such sincerityconcerns not only the patient, but also the doctor. The psychoanalyst has access to personality formation, and a lot in the life of the patient will depend on the doctor. Maximum dedication can provoke a nervous breakdown in a doctor, so every psychologist has his own psychologist.
The presented free association method has become an in-depth continuation and development of Breuer's cathartic method. There was a replacement of hypnosis by communication, saturated with emotions, and the moral influence of the doctor on the patient. The impulses that were released led to catharsis.
The above methods help the patient to realize that he is running away from the disease, and thus healing begins.
Medical treatment is also used. Patients are prescribed psychotropic drugs (Aminalon, Nootropil), Rudotel medication, darsonvalization of the legs and restorative drugs that support he alth and mental state. Taking vitamins, massage sessions have a positive effect on the whole body.
Hysterical attacks in children are treated with simpler methods. The most effective techniques are suggestion and false treatment. By finding out the cause, parents will help cure children's hysteria.
Use and folk remedies to eliminate hysterical neurosis. There are various herbs that calm the nervous system (mint, valerian, motherwort).
Prevention of hysterical seizures
Oddly enough, but for the prevention of this disorder, excessive care and guardianship is not needed at all, because the hysteric, catching this, can begin to simulate the disease and receivebenefit from your condition. Relatives need to accept the state of adequate perception with a slight disregard. In this case, either hysterical fits will disappear altogether, or the level of their demonstrativeness will decrease.
After a visit to a specialist, you should regularly take psychotropic drugs and drugs that calm the nervous system. You can drink tea and tinctures of various herbs.
