04/17/2026
In 1952, hysteria became a formal diagnosis in the DSM. Hysteria was a term for women who: had high anxiety, impulsivity, “dramatic of theatrical behavior” and “emotional outbursts.” Physical symptoms included sudden movements and sleep disturbances.
During Sigmund Freud’s era, women were brought into treatment by their husbands. Freud was the first to uncover these women had one common experience: childhood abuse.
What happened next would become one of the biggest coverups in psychology’s history.
Freud listened to hours to women’s stories of abuse and trauma. He believed them. Men, who were paying for treatment, were obviously not happy that their wives were exposing what went on in their childhood homes, and their marriages. Freud treated the wealthy class in Vienna, and there’s evidence that this connection created pressure for his silence. During this time he suddenly crafter a new narrative. That women created these false memories and stories based on their own fantasies.
Treatment for hysteria involved things I can’t share on Instagram. This only compounded trauma.
During this era, psychologists who were almost entirely male, failed to look at any root causes of hysteria. Decades of research were lost, and women’s lived experiences were denied immediately by the field claiming to treat them.
In 1980, hysteria was formally removed as a diagnosis. The same year, borderline personality disorder was created and entered in the DSM. 75% of people diagnosed are women. And once again, the label was a “personality disorder” instead of understanding that these were people experiencing PTSD.
In my early practice, I treated several people treated with borderline personality disorder. All were turned away from several therapists afraid to treat them. All experienced abuse, neglect, and complex trauma. Almost all were medicated (at high doses) during their teenage years. All most all had their reality denied by someone they loved. The stigma remains.
Imagine how many people we can help when we understand what post traumatic stress does to the mind, body, and soul. Imagine if we stopped calling people disordered, and started asking: “what happened to you?”
