Hysteria in ancient civilisations: A neurological review: Possible significance for the modern disorder

Abstract

The word hysteria originated in the Corpus Hippocraticum (c420 BCE) as a natural explanation for a variety of diseases in women linked in the Greco-Roman mind to an animate or inanimate womb, but which in the last five centuries has evolved to describe an elusive disorder of brain ± mind in men and women, currently referred to by neurologists as “functional neurological disorder”.The Babylonians, Assyrians and Egyptians had no knowledge of brain or psychological function. Babylonian and Assyrian descriptions of disease and behaviour include only rare examples suggestive of modern hysteria. An earlier suggestion that the Greek concept of hysteria was transmitted from Egypt is not supported by recent evidence. The Greco-Roman civilisations had some knowledge of neuroanatomy, but little of nervous system function, conceived in terms of humors. The examples cited here suggestive of modern hysteria are relatively infrequent and fragmentary. The most plausible are attempts to separate the “sacred disease” from other causes of loss of consciousness. The great achievement of Greco-Roman medicine was in introducing natural causation, including causation linked to the womb, rather than gods or evil spirits. Nevertheless medicine, magic and religion have remained intertwined to varying degrees in all cultures up to the present time, despite the growth of modern scientific medicine. The study of hysteria in ancient civilisations adds interesting insight into the evolution of thinking about brain, psyche, mind and self. Babylonian and Egyptian medical and behavioural descriptions are based on observation. Greek and Roman accounts include some subjective aspects, probably linked to early attempts to understand identity, the psyche, intellectual and emotional functions. The great philosophical debate whether the latter resided in the head/brain (Plato) or the heart (Aristotle) has only been settled in the last few centuries, during which hysteria also became linked to brain ± mind. Our more recent increasing knowledge of brain function has also been accompanied by increasing interest in subjective feelings, thoughts, the inner life and subconscious mechanisms, suggesting we may have become more self-aware than in earlier civilisations, which in turn may perhaps influence the clinical presentation of hysteria. The study of hysteria may be one of the keys to a greater understanding of the relationship between brain and mind.