29th December 2008
Hysteria in Four Acts
“Hysteria is not disappearing. Its incidence waxes and wanes, and so do its modes. Today, psychological guises—amnesias, fugues, multiple personalities—tend to be more common than neurological ones like the seizures, paralyses, and sensory losses that were in vogue a century ago. And the imitations of illness that hysterics display can be convincing—particularly if the patient is himself a nurse or doctor.
