MAKING WAVES COLUMN
Hysteria and the Need for Physical Satisfaction
Showcasing how truth is much stranger than fiction and how too many of us are still misinformed
Monday, January 15, 2024, 1:01pm
My boyfriend and I watched the movie Hysteria the other night. It was my second time watching it, and it still boggled my mind to see how medical doctors treated women a little more than 100 years ago.
The term hysteria, which roughly translates from Latin to “wandering uterus,” has been applied to women for thousands of years. Though hysteria has gone in and out of fashion as a way to explain away women’s psychological and physical ailments over the millennia, the real heyday for hysteria’s study and diagnosis was in the 19th century.
Medical doctors thought that our uterus moved around inside of our bodies and compromised other organs. I knew that this part of the story was real, but I wondered what made doctors try to massage women’s genitals as a treatment for hysteria.
After doing a little research into the topic online, I discovered that it seems to be a myth- not the part about hysteria being a catch-all phrase that is now obsolete in terms of a real medical diagnosis, but the fact that doctors were masturbating women to the point of orgasms as a form of treatment.
However, what is true is how effective massagers are at relieving stress in all parts of the body.
As a former licensed massage therapist, I know this to be true for myself and many of the clients I treated legitimately.
We, as human beings, crave touch. Studies have shown how babies who must be placed in incubators for some reason almost always fare better when they are taken out, and held throughout the day.
During the second wave of COVID-19, I spent six out of eight months in Bexhill-on-Sea, England, completely alone due to a sudden lockdown. I’m an introvert and love spending time by myself. However, I craved hugs and longed to at least pet animals.
The highlight of my days those days would be when someone’s dog came close enough to me to pet, and the owner was clearly okay with it.
I tended to my physical wants and needs well. I’m a fiercely independent person, but I had to admit, I missed the touch and company of creatures whom I trust enough to be affectionate.
One of my favorite TED Talks is about happiness. A Harvard-trained doctor studied a group of people over generations and concluded that the fundamental key to happiness is the quality of our relationships, not money, fame, or prestige, but healthy relationships with family, friends, and lovers.
It serves me well to remember this on a regular basis because I am someone who wasn’t comfortable letting people get too close to me for many years. Those who don’t know me well are usually surprised by this because I make friends easily, but trust is another story.
Trust (even more than love, in my opinion) is a huge part of physical satisfaction. Trusting ourselves. Trusting life. Trusting our partners. These are vital for sexual fulfillment as well; at least, I believe this to be for a vast majority of women.
What do you think? How important is touch and trust in physical fulfillment?
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