From Hysteria to Hormones: A Rhetorical History

261 Pages·2018·12.878 MB·English

by  Amy Koerber

FROM HYSTERIA TO HORMONES
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RSA STR
THE RSA SERIES IN TRANSDISCIPLINARY RHETORIC
Edited by
Michael Bernard- Donals (University of Wisconsin) and
Leah Ceccarelli (University of Washington)
Editorial Board:
Diane Davis, The University of Texas at Austin
Cara Finnegan, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign
Debra Hawhee, The Pennsylvania State University
John Lynch, University of Cincinnati
Steven Mailloux, Loyola Marymount University
Kendall Phillips, Syracuse University
Thomas Rickert, Purdue University
The RSA Series in Transdisciplinary Rhetoric is a collaboration
with the Rhetoric Society of America to publish innovative
and rigorously argued scholarship on the tremendous disciplin-
ary breadth of rhetoric. Books in the series take a variety of
approaches, including theoretical, historical, interpretive, criti-
cal, or ethnographic, and examine rhetorical action in a way
that appeals, fi rst, to scholars in communication studies and
English or writing, and, second, to at least one other discipline
or subject area.
Other titles in this series:
Nathan Stormer, Sign of Pathology: U.S. Medical Rhetoric on
Abortion, 1800s–1960s
Mark Longaker, Rhetorical Style and Bourgeois Virtue:
Capitalism and Civil Society in the British Enlightenment
Robin E. Jensen, Infertility: A Rhetorical History
Steven Mailloux, Rhetoric’s Pragmatism: Essays in
Rhetorical Hermeneutics
M. Elizabeth Weiser, Museum World: Rhetorical Identities
in National Spaces
Chris Mays, Nathaniel A. Rivers, and Kellie Sharp-Hoskins, eds.,
Kenneth Burke + The Posthuman
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Amy Koerber
FROM HYSTERIA
TO HORMONES
A Rhetorical History
the pennsylvania state university press
university park, pennsylvania
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Koerber, Amy (Amy Lunn), author.
Title: From hysteria to hormones : a rhetorical history / Amy
Koerber.
Other titles: RSA series in transdisciplinary rhetoric.
Description: University Park, Pennsylvania : Th e Pennsylvania
State University Press, [2018] | Series: Th e RSA series in
transdisciplinary rhetoric | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Summary: “Examines the rhetorical activity that preceded the
early twentieth-century emergence of the word ‘hormone’
and the impact of this word on expert understandings of
women’s health”—Provided by publisher.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2017050844 | ISBN 9780271080857
(cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Women—Health and hygiene—History. |
Hormones—History. | Hysteria—History. | Rhetoric.
Classifi cation: LCC RA564.85 .K655 2018 | DDC
613/.04244—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017050844
Copyright © 2018 Amy Koerber
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by Th e Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park, PA 16802–1003
Th e Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the
Association of University Presses.
It is the policy of Th e Pennsylvania State University Press to
use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the
minimum requirements of the American National Standard
for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Material, ansi z39.48–1992.
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To my sisters:
Anna, Marne, Kristen
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Contents
List of Illustrations | ix
Preface | xi
Acknowledgments | xix
1 Hormones and Hysteria: A Rhetorical Topology | 1
2 Hysteria from Ancient Texts until the Nineteenth Century:
Th e Womb as Topological Space | 17
3 Charcot’s Circus: Nineteenth-Century Science of Hysteria
as a Moment of Stasis | 45
4 Stasis Unsettled: Th e Early Twentieth-Century Rise of
Endocrinology | 76
5 Topology of Sex Diff erence: A Long History of Men Saying
Outrageous Th ings about Women’s Reproductive Organs | 100
6 Illuminating Women: Metaphor and Movement after Centuries
of “Groping in the Dark” | 128
7 Th is Is Your [Female] Brain on Hormones: Enthymeme in
Contemporary Discourse | 156
8 From Hysteria to Hormones | 185
Notes | 213
Bibliography | 225
Index | 235
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Illustrations
1 Stock image resulting from Internet image search for “hormonal woman.”
Photo © Photobunnyuk | Dreamstime.com. Reproduced under royalty-
free license. xv
2 Image of the Möbius strip. Photo © Opinegraphics | Dreamstime.com.
Reproduced under royalty-free license. 1
3 Images showing the normal placement of the female organs and two
stages of the prolapsed womb. From Frederick Hollick’s Th e Diseases
of Woman: Th eir Causes and Cure Familiarly Explained (New York:
Burgess, Stringer, 1847). 33
4 Images showing the anteversion of the female organs and the
retroversion of the womb. From Frederick Hollick’s Th e Diseases of
Woman: Th eir Causes and Cure Familiarly Explained (New York:
Burgess, Stringer, 1847). 34
5 “Attaque d’Hystérie—Première Phase.” From Iconographie
Photographique de la Salpêtrière (Service de M. Charcot), by Désiré-
Magloire Bourneville and Paul Régnard, vol. 1, 1876–1877 (Paris:
Aux bureaux du Progrès medical, V. Adrien Delahaye and Cie., 1876).
Reprinted with permission from Yale University, Harvey Cushing /
John Hay Whitney Medical Library. 60
6 “Attaque d’Hystérie—Deuxième Phase.” From Iconographie
photographique de la Salpêtrière (Service de M. Charcot), by Désiré-
Magloire Bourneville and Paul Régnard, vol. 1, 1876–1877 (Paris:
Aux bureaux du Progrès medical, V. Adrien Delahaye and Cie., 1876).
Reprinted with permission from Yale University, Harvey Cushing /
John Hay Whitney Medical Library. 61
7 “Hystéro-Épilepsie—Contracture.” From Iconographie photographique
de la Salpêtrière (Service de M. Charcot), by Désiré-Magloire Bourneville
and Paul Régnard, vol. 1, 1878 (Paris: Aux bureaux du Progrès medical,
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x illustrations
V. Adrien Delahaye and Cie., 1878). Reprinted with permission from Yale
University, Harvey Cushing / John Hay Whitney Medical Library. 65
8 “Hystéro-Épilepsie—Contorsions.” From Iconographie photographique
de la Salpêtrière (Service de M. Charcot), by Désiré-Magloire Bourneville
and Paul Régnard, vol. 1, 1876–1877 (Paris: Aux bureaux du Progrès
medical, V. Adrien Delahaye and Cie., 1876). Reprinted with permission
from Yale University, Harvey Cushing / John Hay Whitney Medical
Library. 66
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