Love Deprivation and the Hysterical Personality

Abstract

Throughout medical history we find evidence that hysteria has predominated over all other psychological disorders in attracting the attention of philosophers and physicians, yet despite the leading part which the study of hysteria has played in building up our present-day knowledge of psychopathology, it is remarkable how little we have advanced in acquiring an understanding of the cause of the hysterical syndrome itself. Even the wisdom of Freud has failed to offer us a readily acceptable explanation of hysteria, and to this day medical literature contains many theses suggesting that hysteria is related to disorders of the diencephalon, or to glandular dysfunction, and other such organic approaches to the problem. Seemingly we have no yardstick by which we can measure to what extent the hysteric is born, predestined by some elusive factor to develop the malady, and to what extent hysteria is imposed on persons by environmental circumstances. Much significant information on hysteria may be neglected by those who study it as an isolated phenomenon or disease entity, whereas it may well be that the truth of the matter is that at least a little bit of the hysterical reaction goes to form most of the neurotic syndromes met with in practice, and that the pure hysterical reaction is only an academic concept.

Approach and avoidance responses of the hysterical personality to sexual stimuli.

“…The earliest references to the "hysterical personality" (e.g., Jaspers and Janet as quoted by Muncie, 1939) were descriptions of the personality characteristics of individuals with conversion symptoms. More recently several writers have advanced the concept of hysteria as a personality dimension, even for individuals who show no evidence of conversion symptoms (Chodoff & Lyons, 1958;Fidern, 1940;Fitzgerald, 1948;Schilder, 1939;Thornton, 1948). With the exception of psychoanalytically oriented case studies and a few studies testing the hypothesis of the greater suggestibility of conversion hysterics, the literature on the hysterical personality has not been extensive.…”