Jean-Martin Charcot´s medical instruments: Electrotherapeutic devices in La Leçon Clinique à la Salpêtrière.

In the famous painting La Leçon Clinique à la Salpêtrière (A Clinical Lesson at the Salpêtrière) by André Brouillet (1857-1914), the neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) is shown delivering a clinical lecture in front of a large audience. A hysterical patient, Marie Wittman (known as "Blanche"; 1859-1912) is leaning against Charcot's pupil, Joseph Babinski (1857-1932). Lying on the table close to Charcot are some medical instruments, traditionally identified as a Duchenne electrotherapy apparatus and a reflex hammer. A closer look at these objects reveals that they should be identified instead as a Du Bois-Reymond apparatus with a Grenet cell (bichromate cell) battery and its electrodes. These objects reflect the widespread practice of electrotherapeutic faradization at the Salpêtrière. Furthermore, they allow us to understand the moment depicted in the painting: contrary to what is sometimes claimed, Blanche has not been represented during a hysterical attack, but during a moment of hypnotically induced lethargy.

Jules Bernard Luys: from a description of the subthalamic nucleus to hypnotism.

The authors review the role of Jules Bernard Luys in the discovery of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) over 150 years ago. The relationships between the STN and movement disorders, particularly hemiballismus and Parkinson's disease, are well known. The academic life of Jules Bernard Luys can be divided into two periods: a brilliant start as a neuroanatomist, culminating in the discovery of the STN, followed by a second period marked by a shift in his academic activity and an increased interest in topics such as hysteria, hypnotism and, eventually, esotericism.

Jules Bernard Luys: from a description of the subthalamic nucleus to hypnotism / Jules Bernard Luys: da descrição do núcleo subtalâmico ao hipnotismo

ABSTRACT The authors review the role of Jules Bernard Luys in the discovery of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) over 150 years ago. The relationships between the STN and movement disorders, particularly hemiballismus and Parkinson's disease, are well known. The academic life of Jules Bernard Luys can be divided into two periods: a brilliant start as a neuroanatomist, culminating in the discovery of the STN, followed by a second period marked by a shift in his academic activity and an increased interest in topics such as hysteria, hypnotism and, eventually, esotericism.

RESUMO Os autores revisam o papel de Jules Bernard Luys na descoberta do núcleo subtalâmico (NST) há mais de 150 anos. As relações da NST com distúrbios do movimento, em particular o hemibalismo e a doença de Parkinson, são bem conhecidas. A vida acadêmica de Jules Bernard Luys pode ser dividida em duas fases: a primeira, um brilhante começo de sua carreira como neuroanatomista, culminando na descoberta do NST, seguido por um segundo período marcado por uma mudança em sua atividade acadêmica, e maior interesse em tópicos como histeria, hipnotismo e finalmente esoterismo.

[Argentinian women and the uses of drugs: A sociohistorical analysis of female drug use in Argentina (1860-1930)]. / Mujeres argentinas y usos de drogas: análisis sociohistórico del uso femenino de sustancias psicoactivas en Argentina (1860-1930).

This article describes cases presented by experts from the legislative and medical-legal fields regarding the use of psychoactive substances among Argentinian women from 1878 to 1930. Background information is presented regarding the relationship between women and the use different drugs, medical interventions on the female body where psychoactive substances were used are analyzed, and experts' descriptions of cases of female drug users are detailed. Experts' discourses during this period did not attempt to comprehend the specificities of female consumption, but were rather used to position the issue of drug use as a social problem. This was done using three prototypes: the victim of a sick husband; the prostitute who encourages drug use among the weak in spirit (natural-born criminals); and the virtuous young woman who succumbs to drug addiction in spite of her father's rule. Each figure reinforces the need for state intervention and increased social control.

Este trabajo describe casos expuestos por expertos de los ámbitos legislativo y médico-legal periodístico, en los que se reporta el consumo de sustancias psicoactivas por parte de mujeres de Argentina, entre 1878 y 1930. Se presentan antecedentes sobre mujeres y usos de distintos fármacos, se analizan las intervenciones médicas que utilizan sustancias psicoactivas sobre el cuerpo femenino, y se detallan los casos de mujeres consumidoras desde las miradas expertas. En este periodo, los discursos expertos no buscaron comprender la especificidad femenina del consumo, sino promover el tema drogas como un problema. Esto se produce utilizando tres prototipos: la víctima de un marido enfermo, la prostituta que envicia a los débiles de espíritu (criminal nata), y la joven virtuosa que contraviene la ley del padre y sucumbe en la toxicomanía. Cada figura refuerza la necesidad de intervención estatal y control social.

The mysteries of hysteria: a historical perspective.

Jean-Martin Charcot started his main work on hysteria around 1870, until his death in 1893. Désiré Bourneville had triggered Charcot's interest in hysteria during his stay as an interne in his department, while Charles Richet's 1875 article on somnambulism was the trigger for Charcot to develop hypnotism. Charcot's collaborators Paul Richer, Georges Gilles de la Tourette, Paul Sollier, Joseph Babinski, Sigmund Freud and Pierre Janet subsequently became most famous in hysteria. In 1908, a "quarrel of hysteria" opposed several of Charcot's pupils, from which Babinski, who had developed the concept of "pithiatism", was considered victorious against Charcot's first successor Fulgence Raymond. There was a surge of interest in hysteria associated with war psycho-neuroses in 1914-1918, and Babinski's pupil Clovis Vincent developed a treatment called torpillage (torpedoing) against war hysteria, associating painful galvanic current discharges with "persuasion". After World War I, the neurological and psychiatric interest in hysteria again faded away, before a renewed interest at the turn of the last century. Contrary to a common view, the modernity of several of Charcot's concepts in hysteria is remarkable, still today, mainly for: (1) his traumatic theory, which encompassed psychological and certain sexual factors several years before Freud; (2) his personal evolution towards the role of emotional factors, which opened the way to Janet and Freud; (3) his claim of specific differences vs. similarities in mental states such as hypnotism, hysteria, and simulation, which has recently been confirmed by functional imaging; and (4) his "dynamic lesion" theory, which now correlates well with recently established neurophysiological mechanisms.

Functional neurology after the Second World War: The beginnings of neurology on screen (III).

Treatment of functional symptoms has a long history, and interventions were often used in soldiers returning from battle. On the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, I review the portrayal of neurology in documentary film. Two documentaries were released in 1946 and 1948 (Let There Be Light and Shades of Gray, respectively), which showed a number of soldiers with functional neurology including paralysis, stuttering, muteness, and amnesia. The films showed successful treatments with hypnosis and sodium amytal by psychoanalytic psychiatrists. These documentaries link neurology with psychiatry and are remarkable examples of functional neurology and its treatment on screen.

[The story hiding in the body. Basis for a psychosomatology]. / La historia que se oculta en el cuerpo (fundamentos para una psicosomatología psicoanalítica).

The text begins by pointing out that the psychoanalytic discovery of an unconscious psyche helps us understand the evolution of cognitive processes that shape our image of the world and the ego. Since psychoanalysis began, in 1895, with the investigation of hysteria, it is possible to say that, along with psychoanalysis, a scientific, psychosomatological exploration of the psyche-soma relationship has been born. Psychoanalytic theory has been developed, since then, following a "physical" model, more geometric that culminated in the metapsychology that Freud introduced in 1915, and a historical, more linguistic model, which is implicit in the entire course of his work, although it could never consolidate in a fully established theoretical body. However, when, in 1938, he formulates the second fundamental hypothesis of psychoanalysis, he not only gives up, explicitly and definitively, the Cartesian dualism that leads to a dissociation between the mind and the body, but also lays the groundwork for a metapsychology of metahistoric kind.Then, the psychosomatic problem is explored not only as it appears in the context of a session that is part of a psychoanalytic treatment, but also in the circumstances of usual medical practice. In general, a method and the experience obtained with that procedure are described. We call it a pathobiographical study, and it has been practiced continuously in Buenos Aires since its beginning, in 1972. During the past years, other institutions (in Rio Cuarto, Córdoba, in Montevideo, Rome, Florence, Perugia, and Bogotá) adopted that practice.

Status of Selinum spp. L. a Himalayan Medicinal Plant in India: A Review of Its Pharmacology, Phytochemistry and Traditional Uses.

There is a growing trend of herbal medicines in India as well as other parts of the world. The use of herbal medicines alone or alongside prescription drugs for disease management is quite common now. We hereby carry out a review of dominant species of Selinum mainly S. vaginatum C.B. Clarke and S. wallichianum (DC.) Raizada & H.O. Saxena which are potent source of herbal medicine and whose potential is still not exploited. They are found in Northern Himalayas in the states of Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in India, and also distributed in adjoining countries like China, Nepal, and West Pakistan. It is a perennial, primitive, high altitude, therapeutic herbal plant belonging to family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) traditionally used for various diseases like epilepsy, seizures, and hysteria, etc. The aim of this review was to provide a summary on botanical characterization, traditional uses, phytochemistry and pharmacological activity of Selinum spp. The available information will be further tapped for commercial use of this plant without endangering its status. Based on the available evidence on the species pharmacology and chemistry, we highlight in which their therapeutic potential can be properly harnessed for possible integration into the country's healthcare system and be further passed on globally.

Writers as Shell Shock Witnesses during World War I.

The issue of First World War shell shock has been documented mainly from a medical perspective. Many medical texts dealing with war psychoneuroses and their aggressive treatments, such as electrotherapy, were published during the war. Accounts from shell-shocked soldiers are rare. Nevertheless, shell shock was described from a non-medical point of view by a few writers who had undergone or witnessed this pathology. Their texts deal mainly with the psychiatric forms, the most striking ones, but also with the more common concepts of commotion, emotion and pathological fear. The French philosopher Émile Chartier (1868-1951), alias Alain, described the commotional syndrome from which he suffered. The German writer Ernst Jünger (1895-1998), a brave officer and an example for his men, reported his emotional shock. Some psychiatric forms of shell shock are present in the work of the pacifist writer Jean Giono (1895-1970), the naturalist Maurice Genevoix (1890-1980), who suffered himself from a section of the left median and ulnar nerves, or the British poet Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967). War hysteria and pathological fear have been described, on several occasions, by Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961) or the German writer Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970). Electrotherapy has been scarcely reported except by Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894-1961).

Jean-Martin Charcot's influence on career of Sigmund Freud, and the influence of this meeting for the brazilian medicine / Influência de Jean-Martin Charcot na carreira de Sigmund Freud, e a influência desse encontro para a medicina brasileira

Background - Jean-Martin Charcot had a profound influence on Sigmund Freud's life and career. The founders of Brazilian neurology and psychiatry were influenced by the ideas of Charcot and Freud. Objective - To describe Charcot's influence on Freud, and both on the beginning of Brazilian Neurology and Psychiatry. Results - After Freud's stay in Charcot's neurology service during the winter of 1885-1886, there was a shift in his interest from general neurology to hysteria, hypnosis and other psychological issues, which greatly influenced the development of psychoanalytic theory. Like Charcot, Freud would become an admirer of the arts, literature, and culture. When Freud began his collection, in the late 1890s, Charcot served as an important model. In Salpêtrière Hospital, Charcot was staging a show different from modernity, capable of inspiring Freud. Antonio Austregesilo founded the first Brazilian school of Neurology, in Rio de Janeiro, inspired in Charcot. Austresegilo also practiced psychiatry, and, together Juliano Moreira and others, is considered propagator of Freud's ideas in Brazil. Conclusion - The ideas of Charcot and Freud were fundamental in the formation of physicians who helped to found and to consolidate the Brazilian neurology and psychiatry.(AU)

Introdução - Jean-Martin Charcot exerceu uma profunda influência na vida e na carreira de Sigmund Freud. Os fundadores da neurologia e da psiquiatria brasileiras foram influenciados pelas ideias de Charcot e de Freud. Objetivo - Descrever a influência de Charcot sobre Freud e de ambos sobre o início da Neurologia e da Psiquiatria brasileiras. Resultados - Após a permanência de Freud no serviço de neurologia de Charcot durante o inverno de 1885-1886, houve uma mudança em seu interesse da neurologia geral para histeria, hipnose e outras questões psicológicas, o que influenciou muito o desenvolvimento da teoria psicanalítica. Como Charcot, Freud se tornaria admirador das artes, literatura e cultura. Quando Freud começou sua coleção, no final da década de 1890, Charcot serviu de modelo importante. No Hospital Salpêtrière, Charcot era a representação da modernidade, capaz de inspirar Freud. Antonio Austregésilo fundou a primeira escola brasileira de Neurologia, no Rio de Janeiro, inspirada em Charcot. Austresegilo também praticou psiquiatria, e, juntamente com Juliano Moreira e outros, é considerado propagador das ideias de Freud no Brasil.Conclusão - As ideias de Charcot e Freud foram fundamentais na formação de médicos que ajudaram a fundar e consolidar a neurologia e a psiquiatria brasileiras.(AU)

Edgar Adrian (1889-1977) and Shell Shock Electrotherapy: A Forgotten History?

The English electrophysiologist Edgar Adrian (1889-1977) was the recipient of the Nobel Prize for physiology in 1932 for his research on the functions of neurons. During World War I, at Queen Square in London, he devised an intensive electrotherapeutic treatment for shell-shocked soldiers. The procedure, developed with Lewis Yealland (1884-1954), was similar to "torpillage," the faradic psychotherapy used in France. Adrian and Yealland considered that the pain accompanying the use of faradic current was necessary for both therapeutic and disciplinary reasons, especially because of the suspicion of malingering. According to Adrian, this controversial electric treatment was only able to remove motor or sensitive symptoms. After the war, he finally admitted that war hysteria was a complex and difficult phenomenon.

Hypnosis and Psychoanalysis: Toward Undoing Freud's Primal Category Mistake.

Hypnosis predates psychoanalysis, when autohypnotic pathologies were identified through the lens of hypnosis, and labeled "hypnoid hysteria" in the language of the day. The broad spectrum of disorders then subsumed under that term is still reflected in ICD-10's subset, "F44-Dissociative (Conversion) Disorders." Freud initially embraced both hypnoid hysteria and hypnosis, but came to abandon hypnosis and, by extension, hypnoid hysteria as well. Since that fateful decision, which I term herein Freud's "Inaugural Category Mistake," references to both hypnosis and hypnoid pathology largely vanished from the psychoanalytic mainstream, thereby neglecting conditions afflicting a significant portion of the mentally ill, and needlessly restricting the therapeutic repertoire of psychoanalysis. This contribution argues that psychoanalysis could best re-embrace hypnosis and hypnoid pathology together, as a related pair, and would benefit from doing so. Two examples of the differences of understanding and interventions such a rapprochement might encourage are offered: (a) how hypnoid pathology alters the transference and countertransference; and (b) how the appropriate use of hypnosis alters the nature of interpretation.

The Medicinal Usage and Restriction of Ginseng in Britain and America, 1660–1900 / 의사학

This article demonstrates the medicinal usage of ginseng in the West from 1660 to 1914. Asian[Korea] ginseng was first introduced into England in the early 17th century, and North American ginseng was found in the early 18th century. Starting from the late 17th century doctors prescribed ginseng to cure many different kinds of ailments and disease such as: fatigue general lethargy, fever, torpidity, trembling in the joints, nervous disorder, laughing and crying hysteria, scurvy, spermatic vessel infection, jaundice, leprosy, dry gripes and constipation, strangury, yellow fever, dysentery, infertility and addictions of alcohol, opium and tobacco, etc. In the mid-18th century Materia Medica began to specify medicinal properties of ginseng and the patent medicines containing ginseng were widely circulated. However, starting in the late 18th century the medicinal properties of ginseng began to be disparaged and major pharmacopoeias removed ginseng from their contents. The reform of the pharmacopoeia, influenced by Linnaeus in botany and Lavoisier in chemistry, introduced nomenclature that emphasized identifying ingredients and active constituents. Western medicine at this period, however, failed to identify and to extract the active constituents of ginseng. Apart from the technical underdevelopment of the period, the medical discourses reveal that the so-called chemical experiment of ginseng were conducted with unqualified materials and without proper differentiation of various species of ginseng.

Which maternal personality traits affect child behaviour during dental treatment.

AIM: Maternal personality traits affect child dental behaviour and have a potential link with dental treatment methods. This study aims to evaluate which maternal personality traits affect child dental behaviour. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Research was carried out upon 60 children aged between 3-12 years, who had been admitted to our clinic for tooth extraction. All children were evaluated by means of the Frankl Behavior Scale (FBS): degrees I and II represent negative behaviours, while III and IV positive behaviour. Thirty children with FBS degree III and IV were assigned to Group I and 30 children with FBS degree I and II were assigned to Group II. Children in Group I underwent tooth extraction with local anaesthesia. Children in Group II underwent tooth extraction under deep sedation. During the first visit, the mothers were tested with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory to evaluate personality traits. All mothers in Group I and half the mothers in Group II filled a complete and valid test. RESULTS: Group I and II mothers were compared according to the test results: scores of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) test were significantly higher in Group II (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: We hypotetise that character features of mothers of children with negative dental behaviour and positive dental behaviour are different and affect child dental behaviour.

Neurologic approaches to hysteria, psychogenic and functional disorders from the late 19th century onwards.

The history of functional neurologic disorders in the 20th century from the point of view of the neurologist is U-shaped. A flurry of interest between the 1880s and early 1920s gave way to lack of interest, skepticism, and concern about misdiagnosis. This was mirrored by increasing professional and geographic divisions between neurology and psychiatry after the First World War. In the 1990s the advent of imaging and other technology highlighted the positive nature of a functional diagnosis. Having been closer in the early 20th century but later more separate, these disorders are now once again the subject of academic and clinical interest, although arguably still very much on the fringes of neurology and neuropsychiatry. Revisiting older material provides a rich source of ideas and data for today's clinical researcher, but also offers cautionary tales of theories and treatments that led to stagnation rather than advancement of the field. Patterns of treatment do have a habit of repeating themselves, for example, the current enthusiasm for transcranial magnetic stimulation compared to the excitement about electrotherapy in the 19th century. For these reasons, an understanding of the history of functional disorders in neurology is arguably more important than it is for other areas of neurologic practice.

El tarantismo en España en el siglo XVIII: latrodectismo y sugestión / Tarantism in Spain in the eighteen century: latrodectism and suggestion

Introducción. El tarantismo es la enfermedad producida por la picadura de la tarántula, en la que la música de la tarantela desencadena un baile involuntario. Se conoce en Italia desde el siglo XVI. Objetivo. Analizar el tarantismo descrito en España a finales del siglo XVIII, atendiendo especialmente a sus aspectos neurológicos, y proponer su explicación médica y psicopatológica. Desarrollo. En 1782 hubo una epidemia de afectados por picadura de tarántula en España. Médicos españoles describieron correctamente los efectos clínicos, idénticos a los provocados por la picadura de la araña viuda negra (Latrodectus tredecimguttatus), identificada en la época como tarántula. Los casos descritos por Francisco Xavier Cid curaban con el baile involuntario provocado por la tarantela, como se describía en Italia desde el siglo xvi. Interpretamos el efecto curativo de este baile en España como un fenómeno de sugestión. En los pacientes españoles no se producían los trastornos del comportamiento, las recidivas periódicas ni la afectación colectiva descritos por autores italianos, y que sugieren un fenómeno histérico, probablemente continuación de la manía danzante de la Edad Media. Conclusiones. El tarantismo descrito en España en el siglo XVIII incluye dos fenómenos distintos: los síntomas sistémicos producidos de la mordedura de la tarántula, que es en realidad un latrodectismo, y el efecto curativo de la tarantela, lo cual se explica por un fenómeno de sugestión. Los trastornos psíquicos falsamente asociados a la picadura de la tarántula observados en Italia, de origen histérico, no estuvieron presentes en los casos españoles de tarantismo del siglo XVIII (AU)

Introduction. Tarantism is the disease caused by the bite of the tarantula, in which the music tarantella triggers an involuntary dance. It is known in Italy since the sixteenth century. Aim. To analyze the tarantism reported in Spain at the end of the eighteenth century, with special attention to its neurological aspects, and to propose its medical and psychopathological explanation. Development. An epidemic of people affected by the tarantula bite occurred in Spain in 1782. Spanish doctors described appropriately the clinical effects, identical to those produced by the bite of the spider black widow (Latrodectus tredecimguttatus), which was at that time identified as a tarantula. The cases reported by Francisco Xavier Cid cured with the involuntary dance triggered by the tarantella, as was described in Italy since the sixteenth century. Our interpretation is that this curative effect of dance in Spain was induced by suggestion. In Spanish patients there were no behavioral disturbances, periodic recurrences or collective involvement as those reported by Italian authors, which suggest an hysterical phenomenon, probably a continuation of the dancing mania of the Middle Age. Conclusions. Tarantism reported in Spain in the eighteenth century includes two different phenomena: the systemic symptoms produced by the tarantula bite, which is actually latrodectism, and the curative effect of the tarantella, explained by suggestion. The psychiatric disturbances, with a hysterical nature, falsely associated to the tarantula bite, observed in Italy, were not present among the Spanish cases of tarantism in the eighteenth century (AU)

Factors affecting illness in the developing world: chronic disease, mental health and traditional medicine cures.

This is a case report of a 24-year-old Ethiopian woman with a medical history of hepatosplenic schistosomiasis. She suffers from chronic liver failure and portal hypertension. She has been hospitalised for 'hysteria' in the past but did not receive follow-up, outpatient treatment or psychiatric evaluation. After discontinuing her medications and leaving her family to use holy water, a religious medicine used by many Ethiopians, she was found at a nearby monastery. She was non-communicative and difficult to arouse. The patient was rushed to nearby University of Gondar Hospital where she received treatment for hepatic encephalopathy and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis. Her illness is the result of neglected tropical disease, reliance on traditional medicine as opposed to biomedical services and the poor state of psychiatric care in the developing world.

"The Tools of Your Chants and Spells": Stories of Madwomen and Indian Practical Healing.

A longstanding trope in Indian psychiatry, and in popular representations of it, involves the efficacy of incantations and exorcism in healing afflictions of the mind, notably hysteria. In many accounts, from nineteenth century medical journals to twenty-first century popular films, a medicine deemed at once 'Western' and universal is granted the ability to diagnose neurotic afflictions, but rendered incapable of curing them, while bodily techniques referred to as 'Indian' are granted efficacy. In this article, I explore the subtleties and implications of this recurrent knowledge paradigm. I argue that a particular arrangement-one in which difference is established through equivalence-undergirds the terms by which medicine comes to be viewed as a cultural encounter. As these progressive formulations are often founded on stories about women's madness, I ask, what are the implications of an arguably pragmatic ethos founded on an uneven-and deeply gendered-resolution to postcolonial knowledge problems?

Bryophyllum e a perspectiva antroposófica dos distúrbios histéricos / Bryophyllum and the anthroposophic perspective of hysterical disorders

Na concepção antroposófica, a histeria só pode ser compreendida quando comparada sob o ponto de vista fenomenológico ao seu oposto, a neurastenia. Quando o equilíbrio entre os sistemas orgânicos estiver ausente ou deficitário, irão resultar causas constitucionais para doenças na organização vital. Rudolf Steiner as chama de histeria e neurastenia, num sentido muito mais amplo que a terminologia médica.No caso da histeria, as forças do mundo exterior não podem ser digeridas e suficientemente transformadas. O polo superior está fraco demais para transformar completamente as forças exteriores. Já na neurastenia, o polo superior está excessivamente envolvido com a atividade consciente da organização anímica e do eu. Em ambos os casos, a base da terapia está relacionada ao sistema rítmico. A síndrome pré-menstrual pode ser entendida como um distúrbio histérico, onde processos metabólicos "mal digeridos" repercutem sobre o polo neurossensorial e sobre todo o comportamento do indivíduo. A histeria significa a invasão da consciência e do campo anímico de sensibilidade por conteúdos inconscientes, volitivos, metabólicos. Entre os sintomas da histeria, estão distúrbios menstruais acompanhados de dores, humor instável, perturbações digestivas, sintomas sexuais, emotividade exagerada e avidez desejosa. Bryophyllum calycinum (família Crassulaceae), é uma planta suculenta, com uma relação peculiar com o elemento aquoso. Propaga-se principalmente por brotação foliar, e não por sementes. Regenera-se com facilidade incomum. Steiner propôs uma indicação totalmente nova para esta planta: o tratamento da histeria. Não a histeria no sentido psiquiátrico, mas antroposófico, em contraposição à neurastenia. Coube também a Steiner a indicação do cultivo do Bryophyllum com prata dinamizada, pelo processo denominado vegetabilização. A prata (Argentum) possui a faculdade de ligar a organização vital ao corpo físico. O Bryophyllum Argento cultum possibilita melhor controle das forças vitais no âmbito do sistema metabólico.(AU)

From the anthroposophic conception, hysteria can only be understood if compared under phenomenological point of view to its opposite, neurasthenia. The imbalance of the organic systems generates the constitutional bases to disorders of the vital organization. Rudolf Steiner called them hysteria and neurasthenia, in a much wider sense than defined by medical terminology. In case of hysteria, the forces coming from external world cannot be sufficiently metabolized and transformed. The superior pole is too weak to transform completely external forces. While in neurasthenia, the superior pole is excessively involved with the conscious activity of the soul and I-organization. In both cases, the base of therapy is focused on rhythmic system. Premenstrual syndrome may be understood as a hysterical disorder, where metabolic processes poorly "metabolized" resound over nerve-senses pole and over the whole behavior of the individual. Hysteria means the invasion of the consciousness and the soul field of sensibility by unconscious, volitional, metabolic contents. Among the symptoms of hysteria are menstrual disorders accompanied by pain, instable humor, digestive disorders, sexual symptoms, exaggerated emotiveness and anxious desire. Bryophyllum calycinum (Crassulaceae) is a succulent plant with a peculiar relationship with aqueous element. It propagates itself mainly by leaves sprouting, not by seeds. It regenerates itself in an unusually easy way. Steiner proposed a totally new indication to this plant: treatment for hysteria. Not hysteria in psychiatric meaning, but in anthroposophic one, as opposite of neurasthenia. Steiner had also given the indication for Bryophyllum cultivation with potentized silver, through the process called vegetabilization. Silver (Argentum) is capable of binding the vital organization to the physical body. Bryophyllum Argento cultum enables better control of vital forces in the sphere of metabolic system.(AU)