On hysteria and it's clinical cousin, paranoia (please correct me if I'm stretching, Christopher!) ran across an interesting reference in a piece in, "Media, Culture and the Religious Right, " ed. by Linda Kintz and Julia Lesage to Jacqueline Rose, "Why War? Psychoanalysis, Politics and the Return to Melanie Klein, " Basil Blackwell, 1993. " Kintz cites Rose while unpacking the prose of Phyllis Schlafley.
True that the roots of the word "hysteria" are sexist? "Womb sickness"??? Michael Pugliese P.S. I've never read Lovecraft, knew kids in high school that did. Maybe the goths these days are into him? I seem to dimly remember a 60's rock band with that name, no?
From: "ANDERSON DAVID" <andersd at spot.colorado.edu> To: "Michael Pugliese" <debsian at pacbell.net> Cc: "lbo" <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Monday, June 18, 2001 9:28 PM Subject: Re: Beyond the Beltway - the real American Right
This is fascinating. Francis is such a fascist. One note... he says H.P. Lovecraft was "an independent thinker who was on the political Right most of his life." I enjoy Lovecraft's stories. Paul Buhle in his recent big picture book ("Images of American Radicalism"?) describes Lovecraft as a Norman Thomas socialist. I remember reading an essay a long time ago saying Lovecraft was an anti-Semite but that his best friend was Jewish (I know that's a cliche but Lovecraft was a recluse). I remember reading some Lovecraft stories and then reading John Birch Society articles and finding the hysteria in the language to be similar.
Dave