Nitza Yarom looks at psychoanalysis in many different ways.

Examining historical, clinical and artistic material, in both written and visual form, this book traces the figure of the contemporary hysteric as she rebels against the impossible demands made upon her. Exploring five traits that commonly characterise the hysteric as an archetype – a specific body, mimetic abilities, a shroud of mystery, a propensity to disappear and a particular relationship to voice – the authors shed light on what it means to be hysterical, as a form of rebellion and resistance. This is important reading for scholars of sociology, gender studies, cultural studies and visual studies with interests in psychoanalysis, art and the characterisation of mental illness.

In 1224 St. Francis had his stigmata, the first stigmata in history. These spontaneous bleeding wounds, which model those of the crucified Jesus, can be considered a symptom of conversion-hysteria. According to Freud's concept of hysteria, the body, through the symptom, conveys the message of an underlying conflict, which is primarily sexual, an outcry of frustrated femininity. The stigmata of St. Francis raises two major questions: that of the psychological makeup to enable the development of such a hysterical symptom, and that of the historical context which institutionalized a bodily manifestation to answer the needs and conflicts of its time. This book answers both questions through the use of the same psychoanalytic model.

Deconstructing Normativity? brings together a unique collection of chapters in which an international selection of contributors reflect on the fundamental and often very radical ideas present in Freud’s original 1905 edition of the Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. The book has three aims: the contextualization of the text, the reconstruction of its central ideas and the further philosophical reflection of the contemporary relevance and critical potential of the 1905 edition. The authors challenge mainstream interpretations of the Three Essays, generally based on readings of the final 1924 edition of the text, and of the development of Freudian thought: including, most importantly, the centrality of the Oedipus complex and the developmental approach relative to a tendency towards heteronormativity. Deconstructing Normativity? makes an important contribution in rethinking Freudian psychoanalysis and reopening the discussion on its central paradigms, and in so doing it connects with queer and gender theories and philosophical approaches. This book will be essential reading for psychoanalysts in practice and training, as well as academics and students of psychoanalysis, philosophical anthropology, continental philosophy, sex, gender and sexualities.

We seem to be living in hysterical times. A simple Google search reveals the sheer bottomless well of “hysterical” discussions on diverse topics such as the #metoo movement, Trumpianism, border wars, Brexit, transgender liberation, Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, and climate change, to name only a few. Against the backdrop of such recent deployments of hysteria in popular discourse––particularly as they emerge in times of material and hermeneutic crisis––Performing Hysteria re-engages the notion of “hysteria”. Performing Hysteria rigorously mines late 20th- and early 21st-century (primarily visual) culture for signs of hysteria. The various essays in this volume contribute to the multilayered and complex discussions that surround and foster this resurgent interest in hysteria––covering such areas as art, literature, theatre, film, television, dance; crossing such disciplines as cultural studies, political science, philosophy, history, media, disability, race and ethnicity, and gender studies; and analysing stereotypical images and representations of the hysteric in relation to cultural sciences and media studies. Of particular importance is the volume's insistence on taking the intersection of hysteria and performance seriously.

Hysteria is alive and well in our present time and is apparently spreading contagiously: especially the second decade of the twenty-first century has displayed an ever-increasing interest in the term. A quick Google search opens the gates to sheer endless swathes of discussions on hysteria, covering almost every aspect of public discourses. The arts—as it is often in such cases—seem conspicuously involved in and engaged with this hysterical discourse. Surprisingly, while the strong academic interest in hysteria throughout the twentieth century and most prominently at the turn of the century is well known and much discussed, the study of how these discourses have continued well into twenty-first-century art practices, is largely pressing on a blind spot. It is the aim of this volume to illustrate how hysteria was already well established within the arts alongside and at times even separately from the much-covered medical studies, and reveal how those current artistic practices very much continue a century spanning cross-fertilization between hysteria and the arts.

In Precocious Charms, Gaylyn Studlar examines how Hollywood presented female stars as young girls or girls on the verge of becoming women. Child stars are part of this study but so too are adult actresses who created motion picture masquerades of youthfulness. Studlar details how Mary Pickford, Shirley Temple, Deanna Durbin, Elizabeth Taylor, Jennifer Jones, and Audrey Hepburn performed girlhood in their films. She charts the multifaceted processes that linked their juvenated star personas to a wide variety of cultural influences, ranging from Victorian sentimental art to New Look fashion, from nineteenth-century children’s literature to post-World War II sexology, and from grand opera to 1930s radio comedy. By moving beyond the general category of "woman," Precocious Charms leads to a new understanding of the complex pleasures Hollywood created for its audience during the half century when film stars were a major influence on America’s cultural imagination.

This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2013. This rich and diverse collection probes the boundaries of madness across an array of international, historical and disciplinary contexts, illuminating themes including power, surveillance, confinement, liberation, and creativity.

Filled with fascinating new perspectives on a culture saturated with syndromes of every sort, "Hystories" skillfully surveys the condition of hysteria--its causes, cures, famous patients, and doctors--in the 20th century to show that hysterias are always with us, a kind of collective coping mechanism for changing times.

Hysteria is a disease already forgotten by medicine, which, in spite of this, is still very much in vogue. Its name in various academic circles and, especially, in psychoanalytic circles. However, what is today referred to as hysteria is not hysteria, and what is hysteria does not have that name. This book aims to show the form that hysteria actually took before its disappearance in the twentieth century. It aims to answer a simple question. It aims to answer a simple question: What did what was called hysteria for so many centuries look like? What characteristics did it have that identified it from other ailments? How was it dealt with? What was the cause of it? To answer these and other questions, this book makes a historical journey from the first ideas about hysteria, from the first centuries of medicine to the latest conception of it settled in the famous manual of mental disorders, the DSM. This journey is made with emphasis on the second half of the 19th century, the golden age for hysteria and the intellectual environment from which Sigmund Freud and, therefore, his creation, Psychoanalysis, drew nourishment. As happens with any look into the past, many myths become evident as such and, at the same time, are dissolved by looking at the historical facts that involve them. For example, one can see how the idea that hysterical patients were despised by physicians as simulators is false. Or, it can be seen that Freud was never the first to listen to these supposed patients ignored by physicians or that he was not the first or the only one to consider sexuality to explain hysteria. These and many other myths, such as that patients were treated by provoking them to orgasm, are easily debunked in this book. This book is obviously addressed to anyone interested in knowing, with accuracy and detail, what hysteria consisted of, as well as to those interested in seeing the reality behind the mythical foundations of Psychoanalysis, since it was born out of hysteria and to which it dedicated its existence. In short, this book is a modern treatise on hysteria, intended to answer a simple answer to a simple but complex question: What the heck is hysteria?