How true that while distress, trauma and dysfunctional behavior are still very common, the term "hysteria" to describe the condition is no longer popular.
Hysteria seemed to be a vanished 19th-century extravagance useful for literary analysis but surely out of place in the serious reaches of contemporary science.
There is something quaint and antiquated about the word though the idea is now represented by a range of euphemisms that are meant to be more politically correct and gender neutral.
Unofficially, a host of inoffensive synonyms for “hysterical” have appeared: functional, nonorganic, psychogenic, medically unexplained.
Clearly, killing the messenger has not helped.
Throughout that cloud of shifting nomenclature, people have kept getting sick. “The symptoms themselves have never changed,” said Patrik Vuilleumier, a neurologist at the University of Geneva. “They are still common in practice.”
I never fail to remind J that there is a time and place for everything. It is possibly the line she will remember me by when I am dead and gone given how frequently she hears it. Instead of having her breakfast she will break into a song and dance number from High School Musical well past eight on Monday morning. She will insist that I watch and applaud the performance instead of screaming at her to finish her milk and cereal. Her sense of occasion is seriously lacking but then so is mine. Consider for example, a person walks into the grocery store with the express purpose of buying detergent because they are fresh out of it and laundry is only half way done. However instead of heading straight for detergent, they wander over to the natural foods aisle and go berserk upon finding goat milk on sale for a dollar a gallon. They at once proceed to stock pile so they can turn it to huge quantities home-made feta cheese. That person would be me. It would not concern me in the least that I ha...
Comments
I recently discovered your blog, and I must say that I am very impressed. Your blog is "one of a kind," and I do not say that either with subtle derision or lightness. Instead, the remark stands as the highest form of compliment I have paid anybody on the blogging scene.
Your postings have an intellectual flair; and they carry a rich writing style that is uniquely your signature. Nonetheless, I must confess that I enjoyed reading your blogs on the subject matter of relationships and "desi" culture the most; perhaps because I was able to identify with what you had written on those topics, I wanted to ask you to write more on the same whenenever you next get the chance and/or feel the inclination.
Sincerely,
Ek Umeed :)