Mad Men And Medusas: Reclaiming Hysteria

by Juliet Mitchell

This worthy successor to Psychoanalysis and Feminism is both a defense of the long-dismissed diagnosis of hysteria as a centerpiece of the human condition and a plea for a new understanding of the influence of sibling and peer relationships. Juliet Mitchell argues that, because it our first social relationship, the sibling relationship is crucial to development, and that it is a critical failure of psychoanalysis and other psychological theories of development to obscure and ignore the importance of siblings and peers.In Mad Men and Medusas Mitchell traces the history of hysteria from the Greek "wandering womb" to modern-day psychiatric diagnoses, arguing that we need to reclaim hysteria to understand how distress and trauma express themselves in different societies and different times. Using fascinating examples from anthropology, Freud's case studies, literature, and her own clinical practice, Mitchell convincingly demonstrates that while hysteria may have disappeared as a disease, it is still a critical factor in understanding psychological development through the life cycle.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Psychology, Psychoanalysis

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Juliet Mitchell, FBA (born 1940) is a British psychoanalyst and socialist feminist.

Mitchell was born in New Zealand in 1940, and moved to England in 1944. She attended St Anne's College, Oxford, where she received a degree in English, as well as doing postgraduate work. She taught English literature from 1962 to 1970 at Leeds University and Reading University. Throughout the 1960s, Mitchell was active in leftist politics, and was on the editorial committee of the journal, New Left Review.

She was a fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge and Professor of Psychoanalysis and Gender Studies at Cambridge University, before in 2010 being appointed to be the Director of the Expanded Doctoral School in Psychoanalytic Studies at Psychoanalysis Unit of University College London (UCL).

She is a retired registrant of the British Psychoanalytic Council.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Juliet Mitchell guides us through classical accounts of hysteria and the very strong belief by male doctors of the post-modern period as being primarily a "female disease." Contemporary history would come to understand things differently and hysteria as a diagnosis would fade into past history. Mitchell advises us the reason why we no longer see the hysteria that blatantly stares us in the face is a large omission. This omission is due to the failure to bring into the discussion the role played in the construction of the psyche by lateral sibling relationships (sister-brother; brother-brother; sister-sister; brother-sister). She uses the term sibling to include all those who stand in the position of a sibling, whether biologically related or not. Once we consider lateral sibling relations, versus the vertical axis of mother-father, hysteria emerges. Mitchell advises us siblings are everywhere in psychoanalytic accounts - even though they are absent from theory and the clinical practice. Together with the death drive, they help account for many things we are otherwise puzzled by in social situations if we stay only with the vertical axis (mother/father). It's a great book for anyone interested in psychoanalysis as well as some brief medical history from the post-modern era.

[Oliver Jarvis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! A tour through hysteria looking closely at the often overlooked male hysteria and the role that siblings play in the condition. It's very thorough and uses anthropology and autism and psychosis studies to further the findings. I loved it!

[Cypress Butane]

"The importance of siblings (their death or fantasies of their murder) and their place within the construction of hysteria have all been underestimated in psychoanalysis's attempts to base all interpretations on the intergenerational model of parents and children, first of parental seduction and then on Oedipal fantasies of incest."
- end of Chapter 2

[Marta D'Agord · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente pela retrospectiva sobre a histeria na segunda metade do século XX e o surgimento do Borderline para "abrigar", inicialmente, a histeria masculina. Obra crítica fundamental para área da Psicopatologia e Psicanálise. Apesar das superficiais referências a autores como Lacan e Derrida.