Another Interesting Excerpt from one of my textbooks

This is from my Abnormal Psych book for you ladies:

(Hint: read it slow, and read the whole quote, this one is pretty technical)

• Hippocrates (Greek Physician from about 400 BC) also coined the word "hysteria" to describe a concept he learned about from the Egyptians, who had identired what we now call "somatoform disorders." In these disorders, the physical symptoms appear to be the result of an organic pathology for which no organic cause can be found, such as paralysis and some kinds of blindness. Because these disorders occurred primarily in women, the Egyptians (and Hippocrates) mistakenly assumed that they were restricted to women. They also presumed the cause: The empty uterus wandered to various parts of the body in search of conception (the Greek term for Uterus is "hysteron"). Numerous physical symptoms reflected the location of the wandering uterus. The prescribed cure might be marriage, or occasionally, fumigation of the vagina to lure the uterus back to its natural location. Knowledge of physiology eventually disproved the wandering uterus theory; however, the tendency to stigmatize dramatic women as "hysterical" continued unabated well into the 1970s, when mental health professionals became sensitive to the prejudicial stereotype the term implied. Somataform disorders (and the traits associated with them) are not limited to one sex or the other.

Please do me a favor, the next time your husband calls you "hysterical," and you throw this information back in his face, don't tell him you learned it from me.