ABSTRACT
The term hysteria is used mainly by contemporary psychiatrists to denote a loss of perceptual functioning for which there is no apparent physiological or neurological basis. It can be used also to indicate not so much a loss as an inexplicable change in perceptual functioning which seems not to accord with normal standards. S. Freud, who worked for Charcot as a young student, generally endorsed the views of his mentor whom he felt had rescued hysteria from its ill-conceived reputation. But eventually his ideas turned full circle when he propounded his pan-sexual theories towards the very end of the century. The phenomenon of hysteria, and its various manifestations, raises the whole question of suggestibility. A number of studies have been done showing that people have different degrees of suggestibility. Many of these have been carried out in relation to hypnosis and the extent to which particular individuals are susceptible to suggestion in this form.
