Hysteria is one of the diseases that have been known for more than two thousand years, and the research about it led to the emergence of psychoanalysis in the late 19th century. But in the 80s of the 20th century, this disease was removed from the list of mental diseases. The change of the etiology of hysteria should be examined in two parts: pre-modern medicine and clinical medicine. In this article, we examine the etiology of hysteria in pre-modern medicine. The article has three parts: In the first part, the etiology of hysteria - the wandering uterus - in humoral medicine is examined. In the second part, the controversies related to the influence of magic factors in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance in the investigation of the etiology of hysteria are examined. In the final part, the impact of the mechanical attitude ruling the 17th century on the etiology of hysteria will be described by the theory of spirits.
فدریچی،سیلویا(1400) کالیبان و ساحره:زنان، بدن و انباشت بدوی، مترجم مهدی صابری، نشر چشمه:چرخ
Chiara Thumiger and P. N. Singer(2018) “Disease Classification and Mental Illness:Ancient and Modern Perspectives” in Mental Illnessin Ancient Medicine From Celsus to Paul of Aegina edited by ChiaraThumiger and P. N. Singer,Brill,Leiden ; Boston
Celsus(1971 republication of the 1935 edition)De Medicina, English translation by W. G. Spencer , Harvard University Press..
Urso, Anna Maria (2018) "Mental Derangement in Methodist Nosography: What Caelius Aurelianus Had to Say" in Mental Illness in Ancient Medicine: from Celsus to Paul of Aegina, Vol 50, edited by Chiara Thumiger and P. N. Singer. Leiden ; Boston : Brill
Singer, P. N. (2018) "Galen’s Pathological Soul: Diagnosis and Therapy in Ethical and Medical Texts and Contexts" in Mental Illness in Ancient Medicine: from Celsus to Paul of Aegina,Vol 50, edited by Chiara Thumiger and P. N. Singer. Leiden ; Boston : Brill
Burton, Robert(2016, original edition 1621) The Anatomy of Melancholy, Anboco
Dewhurst, Kenneth (1966) Dr.Thomas Sydenham(1624-1689): his life and original writings, University of California Press.
Maines, Rachel P.(2001) The Technology of orgasm:hysteria, the vibrator, and women’sexual satisfaction, The John Hopkins University Press.
Paracelsus (1999) Paraselsus: essential readings, selected and translated by Nicholas GoodRick-Clarke, Crucible , England
Jorden, Edward (1603) A Briefe Discourse of a Disease Called the Suffocation of the Mother, MacDonald, ed.
Caron, Louis (2015)Thomas Willis the Restoration and the First Works of Neurology, Med. Hist. vol. 59(4), pp. 525–553
Willis, Thomas(1681)A medical-philosophical discourse of fermentation, or, Of the intestine motion of particles in every body translated into English by S.P.TheUniversityofMichigan,http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A66503.0001.001
Willis,Thomas(1684)An essay of the pathology of the brain and nervous stock in which convulsive diseases, translated by S.P. The University of Michigan Library, http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A66503.0001.001
MacDonald, Michael (1991) Witchcraft and Hysteria in Elizabethan London, Edward Jorden and the Mary Glover Case, London: Routledge
Moghaddam Heidari,G. (2025). Changing etiology of hysteria in pre-modern medicine:
From moving the uterus to the movement of spirit. Philosophy of Science, 13(2), 241-263. doi: 10.30465/ps.2023.47468.1699
MLA
Moghaddam Heidari,G. . "Changing etiology of hysteria in pre-modern medicine:
From moving the uterus to the movement of spirit", Philosophy of Science, 13, 2, 2025, 241-263. doi: 10.30465/ps.2023.47468.1699
HARVARD
Moghaddam Heidari G. (2025). 'Changing etiology of hysteria in pre-modern medicine:
From moving the uterus to the movement of spirit', Philosophy of Science, 13(2), pp. 241-263. doi: 10.30465/ps.2023.47468.1699
CHICAGO
G. Moghaddam Heidari, "Changing etiology of hysteria in pre-modern medicine:
From moving the uterus to the movement of spirit," Philosophy of Science, 13 2 (2025): 241-263, doi: 10.30465/ps.2023.47468.1699
VANCOUVER
Moghaddam Heidari G. Changing etiology of hysteria in pre-modern medicine:
From moving the uterus to the movement of spirit. Philosophy of Science, 2025; 13(2): 241-263. doi: 10.30465/ps.2023.47468.1699