Hysteria – mysterious disease and its journey through centuries. Four discourses and the hysteric.
Authors
Tropa, Ilze
Issue Date
2018
Degree
Higher Diploma in Arts in Counselling and Psychotherapy
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
Items in Esource are protected by copyright. Previously published items are made available in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/copyright holder.
Abstract
Hysteria has been deeply imbedded in the history of human kind throughout the centuries without having medically explained symptoms. With the development of modern medicine many symptoms have been found to have an organic cause. The same modern medicine has shown through brain scans that there are people who have serious and debilitating symptoms without any organic cause. This leads to the work of Freud and Lacan who dedicated their lives exploring how our inner world- unconscious directly influences our well-being. Lacan and his followers are courageous to point out that we all are, to a certain extent, a hysteric. Lacan’s four discourses are important concepts to better understand how language, the unconscious and other signifiers impact our lives and society as a whole. The Master discourse, The University discourse, The Analytic discourse and The Hysteric discourse shows how language and speech are positioned and how we relate between the Subject and the Other. It can be challenging for the Analyst to work with the Hysteric.