Abstract

The paper examines the significance of hysteria in relation to gender, the Darwinian psychiatrical construction of hysteria in the 19th century, and finally the psychoanalytical concept of hysteria as an example of mental disorder. This suggests that the study of pathology started as the study of female pathology. The question is whethe rit is possible to give new meaning to hysteria and to say that it is a revolt against patriarchal discourse, following this ‘ontological’ link between women and madness based on women’s hyper-emotionality. Furthermore, it even reassess hysteria within post-feminism which stands for diversity, to such an extent that from being women’s‘un-power’ it turns hysteria into ‘woman-power’ – the power of emotions, which is elaborated in the works of contemporary philosophers Megan Boler and AlisonJaggar.