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The term originates with a Greek medical term, hysterikos. This referred to a supposed medical condition peculiar to women caused by disturbances of the uterus. The same general definition came into widespread use in the late 1800s to describe what is today generally considered to be sexual dissatisfaction. "Treatment" typically consisted of the use of vibrators or water sprays to cause orgasm. By the early 1900s the practice, and term, had fallen from use.
Today the term is most often used in the phrase mass hysteria to describe mass public reactions. It is commonly applied to the waves of popular medical problems that "everyone gets" in response to news articles. The yuppy flu of the late 1980s and other ailments dating back to the advent of the press.
A similar usage refers to any sort of "public wave" phenomenon, and has been used to describe the periodic widespread reappearance and public interest in UFO reports, crop circles, and similar examples. Also, when information, real or fake, becomes misinterpreted.
Hysteria is often associated with movements like the Salem Witch Trials, the Red ScareThe term Red Scare has been applied to two distinct periods of intense anti-Communism in United States history: firstly from 1917 to 1920 and secondly in the early 1950s. Both periods were characterized by widespread fears of Communist influence on U., McCarthyismMcCarthyism named after Joseph McCarthy, was a period of intense anticommunism, also known as the (second) Red Scare, which occurred in the United States from 1948 to about 1956 (or later), when the government of the United States actively persecuted the, and TerrorismTerrorism refers to the use of violence against noncombatants for the purpose of achieving a political, religious or socio-economic goal. Terrorist acts can be carried out by individuals or groups, and are sometimes sponsored by governments as an alternat.
See also: conversion hysteria , moral panicA moral panic is a semi-spontaneous or media-generated mass movement based on the perception that some individual or group, frequently a minority group or a subculture, is dangerously deviant and poses a menace to society. These panics are generally fuell