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The seventeenth-century transformation of the hysteric affection, and Sydenham's Baconian medicine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Jeffrey M. N. Boss
Jeffrey M. N. Boss*
Affiliation:
Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, Banbury Road, Oxford
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Jeffrey M. N. Boss, Department of Physiology, Medical School, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TD.
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Synopsis

Before 1600 the ‘hysteric affection’ was a paroxysmal ailment of women explained as primarily due to the condition or malposition of the womb. During the seventeenth century attention shifted from the womb to the brain. Then Thomas Sydenham's clinical method yielded a view of hysteria which comprehended a wide range of illness with a mental component, and which was related to the whole person. In the course of this paper the relation of the hysteric affection to witchcraft, demonic possession, St Vitus' dance (chorca), hypochondria and melancholy is also noted.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , May 1979 , pp. 221 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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