Document Type : Research Paper

Author

• Gholamhossein Moghaddam Heidari

faculty member in IHCS

Abstract

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.

Keywords

• Hysteria
• uterus
• magic
• etiology
• spirit