Histories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Culture

"Hysteria has traditionally been seen as female territory but in this pertinent and lucid book Elaine Showalter argues that it is a disease that is universal. Hysterical disorders, far from dying out with the end of Victorian sexual repression, have in fact flooded the media in the 1980s and 1990s. From Gulf War syndrome to Satanic ritual abuse, these epidemics of psychogenic disease and memory have much to tell us about the anxieties of Western culture. Elaine Showalter's piercing study has provoked controversy all over the world and has opened a debate that will continue to intensify as the millenium draws near.

'Daring and provocative,' Independent"