In the excerpt that follows, Goldstein argues that during the nineteenth century the phenomenon of male hysteria was developed through opposing interpretations: the medical community used it to reinscribe conventional gender definitions, while writers subverted such norms by associating hysteria with the desire for androgyny.

In the excerpt that follows, Kahane examines several major works of literature to reveal the structure of hysteria as an aggressive act of self-expression.

In the excerpt that follows, Bewell discusses Wordsworth's use of the hysteric and her roots in the figure of the witch to examine the connection between language and the creative imagination.

In the following excerpt, Swann asserts that in "Christabel" Coleridge explores the complex and multifaceted relations between hysteria—as a socially disruptive moment—and the Law—as masculine, rational control through social conventionality.

In the following excerpt, Ender examines the ultimate convergence between differing explanations of hysteria—emotional/moral and physiological—and concludes that femininity is a predisposition for all of them.

In the excerpt that follows, Kahane contends that the second half of the nineteenth century was dominated by cultural, political, and economic upheaval, accompanied by a conservative reaction to this upheaval; this tension between radical change and static order, Kahane maintains, is reflected in the structure of the internal conflict expressed in hysteria.