Women behaving badly

[Brad De Long]

>Carrol, *nowhere* in her book does Showalter suggest that hysteria should
>be understood in a clinical sense.
>

If "hysteria" is a marker for a bunch of similarities in patterns of
behavior, then it *is* being used in a clinical sense: someone shows up at
Showalter's clinic complaining of CFS, and Showalter classifies them as
"hysterical."

That's what being used "in a clinical sense" is.

Of course, I have big problems with understanding how a term like
"hysteria" could ever be used in a non-clinical sense...

Brad DeLong