Hysteria

A sanatorium (from Latin sānāre 'to heal'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, is a historic name for a specialised hospital for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments, and convalescence.

Sanatoria were often in a healthy climate, usually in the countryside. The idea of healing was an important reason for the historical wave of establishments of sanatoria, especially at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The most common issue treated at sanatoria was tuberculosis (before the discovery of antibiotics). Some sanatoria also treated alcoholism as well as hysteria, masturbation, fatigue and emotional exhaustion. Facility operators were often charitable associations, such as the Order of St. John and the newly founded social welfare insurance companies.

Jean-Martin Charcot (French: [ʒɑ̃ maʁtɛ̃ ʃaʁko]; 29 November 1825 – 16 August 1893) was a French neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. He worked on groundbreaking work about hypnosis and hysteria, in particular with his hysteria patient Louise Augustine Gleizes. Charcot is known as "the founder of modern neurology", and his name has been associated with at least 15 medical eponyms, including various conditions sometimes referred to as Charcot diseases.

Charcot has been referred to as "the father of French neurology and one of the world's pioneers of neurology". His work greatly influenced the developing fields of neurology and psychology; modern psychiatry owes much to the work of Charcot and his direct followers. He was the "foremost neurologist of late nineteenth-century France" and has been called "the Napoleon of the neuroses".

In psychology, abnormality (also dysfunctional behavior, maladaptive behavior, or deviant behavior) is a behavioral characteristic assigned to those with conditions that are regarded as dysfunctional. Behavior is considered to be abnormal when it is atypical or out of the ordinary, consists of undesirable behavior, and results in impairment in the individual's functioning. As applied to humans, abnormality may also encompass deviance, which refers to behavior that is considered to transgress social norms. The definition of abnormal behavior in humans is an often debated issue in abnormal psychology.

Abnormal behavior should not be confused with unusual behavior. Behavior that is out of the ordinary is not necessarily indicative of a mental disorder. Abnormal behavior, on the other hand, while not a mental disorder in itself, is often an indicator of a possible mental or psychological disorder. A psychological disorder is defined as an "ongoing dysfunctional pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior that causes significant distress, and is considered deviant in that person's culture or society". Abnormal behavior, as it relates to psychological disorders, would be "ongoing" and a cause of "significant distress". A mental disorder describes a patient who has a medical condition whereby the medical practitioner makes a judgment that the patient is exhibiting abnormal behavior based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) criteria. Thus, simply because a behavior is unusual it does not make it abnormal; it is only considered abnormal if it meets these criteria. The DSM-5 is used by both researchers and clinicians in diagnosing a potential mental disorder. The criteria needed to be met in the DSM-5 vary for each mental disorder.

Louise Augustine Gleizes (born 21 August 1861), known as Augustine or A, was a French woman who was publicly exhibited as a "hysteria" patient by neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot while she was held at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris.

Alice James (August 7, 1848 – March 6, 1892) was an American diarist, and the younger sister of novelist Henry James and philosopher and psychologist William James. Her relationship with William was unusually close, and she seems to have been badly affected by his marriage. James suffered lifelong health problems that were generally dismissed as hysteria in the style of the day. She is best known for her published diaries.