Comments about hysteria

Abstract

When he abandoned the theory of seduction, Freud discovered phantasy as an organizer of psychic life. Phantasies are inserted between the symptoms and the impressions of childhood and they become theorigin of the symptoms. The hysterical symptom is caused by thecoming together of two opposing sexual phantasies, one feminine, and theother masculine that reflect thecomplexity of thehysterical identification, oscilating within a sexual bipolarity related to theprimal scene and the Oedipus complex.In hysteria, feminine development has been halted, trapped between a homosexual bond with the mother and a incestous heterosexual one with the father. In the hysterical male the lack of masculine identification is due to rejection of the paternal filiation, since the hysteric tries to avoid castration by staying in a maternal space.In hysteria there exists a particular configuration of desire as anunsatisfied desire. It is through multiple, changing identificationsthat thehysterical person fulfills imaginarily his desires.The exacerbation of thebond of pure love tat they attempt to establish, has theaimof consuming thedesire in this love. The fall or loss of theidealized object, support of theIdeal ego, can give rise to severe depressions.Histrionics, a basic characteristic of hysteria, employs similar methods to those of thetheatre. However, thehisteric does not possess thefreedom or thecreative capacity of theactor since he is trapped in his own repetitive game which cannot leave theclosed of the unconscious.