Souffrir de folie ou souffrir à la folie ?

Abstract

At the turn of the 20th century, the extensive practice of genital surgery was criticized in the medical world. Gynecologists justified their practice by emphasizing the severity of the pain induced by gynecological diseases and their consequences on the quality of life of the patients. They also declared not to operate in the absence of lesions of the genitals. However, some organic lesions seemed minimal but were correlated with severe pain and there was no real consensus on the attitude to be taken in these circumstances. Since chronic pelvic pain was also a stigma of hysteria, practitioners did not really know how to distinguish cases of gynecological diseases that are sources of chronic pain from cases of hysteria.

Keywords

• gynaecology
• pain
• psychology
• hysteria
• castration
• hormones