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RSA Series in Transdisciplinary Rhetoric
From Hysteria to Hormones: A Rhetorical History
In From Hysteria to Hormones, Amy Koerber examines the rhetorical activity that preceded the early twentieth-century emergence of the word hormone and the impact of this word on expert understandings of women's health.
Shortly after Ernest Henry Starling coined the term "hormone" in 1905, hormones began to provide a chemical explanation for bodily phenomena that were previously understood in terms of "wandering wombs," humors, energies, and balance. In this study, Koerber posits that the discovery of hormones was not so much a revolution as an exigency that required old ways of thinking to be twisted, reshaped, and transformed to fit more scientific turn-of-the-century expectations of medical practices. She engages with texts from a wide array of medical and social scientific subdisciplines; with material from medical archives, including patient charts, handwritten notes, and photographs from the Salp�tri�re Hospital, where Dr. Jean Charcot treated hundreds of hysteria patients in the late nineteenth century; and with current rhetorical theoretical approaches to the study of health and medicine. In doing so, Koerber shows that the boundary between older, nonscientific ways of understanding women's bodies and newer, scientific understandings is much murkier than we might expect.
A clarifying examination of how the term "hormones" preserves key concepts that have framed our understanding of women's bodies from ancient times to the present, this innovative book illuminates the ways in which the words we use today to discuss female reproductive health aren't nearly as scientifically accurate or socially progressive as believed. Scholars of rhetoric, gender studies, and women's health will find Koerber's work provocative and valuable.
Shortly after Ernest Henry Starling coined the term "hormone" in 1905, hormones began to provide a chemical explanation for bodily phenomena that were previously understood in terms of "wandering wombs," humors, energies, and balance. In this study, Koerber posits that the discovery of hormones was not so much a revolution as an exigency that required old ways of thinking to be twisted, reshaped, and transformed to fit more scientific turn-of-the-century expectations of medical practices. She engages with texts from a wide array of medical and social scientific subdisciplines; with material from medical archives, including patient charts, handwritten notes, and photographs from the Salp�tri�re Hospital, where Dr. Jean Charcot treated hundreds of hysteria patients in the late nineteenth century; and with current rhetorical theoretical approaches to the study of health and medicine. In doing so, Koerber shows that the boundary between older, nonscientific ways of understanding women's bodies and newer, scientific understandings is much murkier than we might expect.
A clarifying examination of how the term "hormones" preserves key concepts that have framed our understanding of women's bodies from ancient times to the present, this innovative book illuminates the ways in which the words we use today to discuss female reproductive health aren't nearly as scientifically accurate or socially progressive as believed. Scholars of rhetoric, gender studies, and women's health will find Koerber's work provocative and valuable.
- GenresMedicine
264 pages, Paperback
Published March 15, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 29, 2019
Interesting but difficult to get through. I had to keep rereading parts as I found my mind wandering.
June 25, 2026
Okay my thoughts on this book are complicated.
This was my third time attempting to read it and the first time I was able to finish it, because it's dense! Like there is a lot thrown at you in the first few chapters and Koerber explains it well but it's complex ideas.
That being said I like the idea of time/knowledge folding and renaming an existing idea. Sexist ideas about women's health have historically just been renamed to seem like science has a neutral perspective on it. IT IS NOT! And Koerber exploration of the renaming of hormones through time from hysteria (a condition of a wandering womb) to the modern 'normal hormone levels' was fantastic.
Dense but cool stuff.
Best book that explains enthymeme and its relationship to science in an easy to understand way.
This was my third time attempting to read it and the first time I was able to finish it, because it's dense! Like there is a lot thrown at you in the first few chapters and Koerber explains it well but it's complex ideas.
That being said I like the idea of time/knowledge folding and renaming an existing idea. Sexist ideas about women's health have historically just been renamed to seem like science has a neutral perspective on it. IT IS NOT! And Koerber exploration of the renaming of hormones through time from hysteria (a condition of a wandering womb) to the modern 'normal hormone levels' was fantastic.
Dense but cool stuff.
Best book that explains enthymeme and its relationship to science in an easy to understand way.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews