Before modern medicine, unexplained women's behaviors and illnesses were diagnosed as hysteria.
Symptoms of hysteria included fever and physical pain, as well as behaviors that didn't fit female stereotypes of passivity, feebleness, and fragility.
Since the mid-1800s, we've gained a deeper understanding of why anorexia develops, but its early associations with hysteria have been difficult to escape
Anorexia and hysteria are not the same illness
In a 1982 Life Magazine article, it was claimed that "hysteria has almost d...
Alexithymia is a personality trait that makes it difficult to identify our feelings, describe what other people are feeling, and to think imaginatively.
Illness denial is more difficult to find a medical explanation for, but emerging neurological explanations suggest that people with...