Hysteria (movie rec)

[obamanut2012]

Watched this earlier today, and it is terrific, and having it be a romcom instead of a drama or biopic makes it more interesting in a way. It stars Felicity Jones, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rupert Everett and Hugh Dancy.

It is about the invention of the vibrator, which was a medical device.

For those who don't know about this: basically everything "wrong" with a women was caused by "hysteria," an ailment of her uterus, EVERYTHING. One way to help treat and cure women of this was to have them go to a doctor and, to be blunt about it, have their clitoris rubbed until they had an orgasm, which was not recognized as the same as a male orgasm (ie sexual in nature), but was medically referred to as a Paroxysmal Convulsion.

Now, all of these (male) doctors got exhausted by doing this all day long. For real, It was considered a chore, and very physical, because basically that's how they treated most of their female patients. So... a medical device was invented, to relieve the doctor of some of his exhaustion and boredom of doing this day in... day out.....

And, that medical device was the vibrator!

When I first learned this about 20 years ago, I was

On edit: the APA considered Hysteria a legit psychological diagnosis until 1952.


The film is funny, and I loved the cast. It is also not as "blue" as you would think, because this was considered MEDICAL (at least by most doctors), not sexual.

The movie:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysteria_%282011_film%29

The trailer:

[FirstLight]

1. thanks for the rec

I was contemplating watching this a while ago but had not seen the trailer and the written tagline didn't do it justice. I will have to watch now!


ya, it's pretty scary that the Medical field (male dominated as usual) has still very little understanding of Women's issues, despite research and physiology knowledge. I seek out women docs almost exclusively for that reason...the last thing I need is a doc blaming my 'depression' on Hormones!
edit to add: However, a good orgasm CAN be a remedy for quite a few ailments!!!

[FloridaJudy]

2. But was it *hysterically* funny?

Thanks. I'll put it in my Netflix queue.

Did you see "A Dangerous Method"? That was another cinematic attempt to deal with the medical history of hysteria. I can't whole-heartedly recommend it: it moved very slowly, and the female characters were pretty stereotyped. But the acting was superb (Keira Knightley can actually act! Who knew?)

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_dangerous_method/

[obamanut2012]

3. I wound up buying "A Dangeous Method"

Very underrated and overlooked film, and it has someone for everyone: Keira Knightley, Fassbender, Viggo!

I totally agree it was too slow. Pacing was bad, but fascinating, and showed how once again, men took the credit for a woman's scientific work. Or WOMEN, since Jung's wife also worked closely with him.

The IRL character Knightley played was killed by the Nazis btw.

[FloridaJudy]

4. Jung's wife wasn't given that much credit in the film

She seemed to be one of those loyal spouses who did the donkey work for DH. Mrs. Tolstoy was another: I'd love to see a film about that woman! IMHO, she must have been a saint to put up with Leo, let alone write out the manuscript of War and Peace several times! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alexandra-popoff/sophia-tolstoy-not-the-wo_b_576632.html. In return she was vilified.

I agree, the male eye candy wasn't bad either. And the scene where Freud and Jung are discussing sex at the dinner table, while Freud's prim and proper looking daughters are smiling in secret delight? Priceless!

I wish he hadn't set a decent understanding of sexual physiology back a hundred years by promoting the vaginal orgasm, though. He should have just asked them!

[obamanut2012]

5. Her own credentials and research were ignored in the film

I discovered it from, of all places, Wikipedia, when I was reading about how accurate the film was.

I would LOVE to see a movie about Mrs. Tolstoy!

Dorothy Wordsworth is another one.

[obamanut2012]

6. This quote may interest you

About the movie:

"In an interview with The Daily Beast's Marlow Stern, Cronenberg himself is quoted as saying that those scenes were "quite clinical. These were people who, even when they were having sex, they were observing themselves having sex because they were so interested in their reactions to things."[19]"

I think Knightley could have legitimately won the Oscar for this role.