Male Hysteria' in Showalter's The Female Malady Essay

Male Hysteria' in Showalter's The Female Malady - Essay Example They say that these characteristics, coupled with some environmental issues trigger hysteria. For a long time, until recently, stories of hysteria were told by men, and in these stories, the women were portrayed not as the heroines, but as the victims. But as more research was done by various psychoanalysts, different opinions and observations came to light. The main one being that hysteria could not only be linked to women but could also be a male condition, or a condition general for individuals, irrespective of gender, who feel that they are silenced by society or powerless against it. According to texts, male hysteria has always been considered a shameful condition, and male hysterics are seen as unmanly and weak (Showalter, p180). They say it is as if the feminine component associated with hysteria is itself a symptom. In A System of Medicine by John Russell Reynolds, it is argued that hysterical men or boys are either of morally or mentally feminine constitution. The stereotypes and prejudices that were protested at some point are alive and still being used against mal e hysterics. An analyst notes that a hysterical man is described as one who behaves like a woman. In her book, Showalter included one study she made on Emile Batualt, a French researcher. According to the study, Batualt observations were focused on hysterical men found in Salpetriere’s special ward. Here, the male patients were fearful and timid. Their gazes were not piercing or lively. They were languorous, poetic and soft. Eccentric and coquettish, they preferred scarves and ribbons to manual labor (Showalter, p172). With these kinds of expectations, doctors were finding it difficult to accept the diagnosis of hysteria in men who seemed virile. The image of a hysteric in psychiatric literature is described to depict that the man would be closely described as a passive homosexual. This advances the image created of male hysteria, which brings

In what ways has the post-Cold War economic globalization expose Essay

In what ways has the post-Cold War economic globalization expose workers, consumers and countries to new insecurities and how can the risks associated with process be managed - Essay Example The Cold War, after all, albeit essentially a geopolitical divide spawned a great economic divide between two blocs that characterised the world set up since the end of the World War II until the late 1980s. Since the divide did not confine itself between the then two superpowers but spread throughout Europe, Asia Africa and Latin America the ensuing economic split was extensive and thorough throughout the globe. Economic competition was all-consuming between the two blocs and the trade between them and their allies was virtually reduced to barter and countertrade. Internal trade within each bloc however, grew during the Cold War as represented by such pacts and agreements as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) or the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) for the US bloc and the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) for the Soviet bloc (Aldonas 2009 29-30). With the end of the Cold War, economic changes far and wide ensued. Gone were the restrictions and barriers that characterized the economic and trade relations between countries belonging to the respective Soviet and US blocs. More significantly, it freed up the economic resources that were previously used to fund the excessive manufacture of weapons and armaments on both sides. Trade liberalisation unfettered by ideological constraints brought China’s entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and saw the latter’s rise and emergence, along with India, as the new economic superpowers. The new economic freedom facilitated world economic growth that reached a new height in 2004 at 3.8 per cent, an economic development that exemplified the rapid economic growth that outpaced that of the last three decades combined (Aldonas 2009 29). Yet, along with the unprecedented rapid economic growth, the unification of the world market or globalisation in the post-Cold War