The wandering womb, and what became of it

c. 400 BCE – 1980

Alongside the theories of the blood ran a theory of the organ. The uterus was held to be capable of moving within the body, wandering from its proper place and pressing on other organs, producing breathlessness, choking, fainting and emotional disturbance. Treatments followed the logic: aromatic substances placed to lure the womb back into position, or applied at the nose to drive it down.

The condition took its name from the organ. Hystera is Greek for uterus, and hysteria is, etymologically, uterus-disease — a diagnosis whose name asserts its cause. It survived the abandonment of the anatomy that produced it. Through the nineteenth century it remained a common diagnosis for women, was displayed and theorised in Parisian neurology, and passed into early psychoanalysis. It was removed from the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual only in 1980.

The through-line is worth stating plainly. For most of recorded medical history, an organ unique to women was treated as an explanation for symptoms across the entire body, including symptoms of the mind. That habit did not end when the wandering womb did.