The Vibrator created to relieve female patients with “hysteria” – tradeshow booth of life

The new movie “Hysteria” is about a Victorian-era doctor who invents an electric massager and uses it to bring about “paroxysms” of relief in female patients with “hysteria.” Surprising even to the Trade Show Booth of Life

While the movie is set in the 19th century, doctors’ “manual manipulation” as a treatment for female hysteria goes back as far as the second century. “That took too long so doctors started training midwives to do it.  Eventually, doctors turned to technology to speed up the laborious treatment.

British physician Joseph Mortimer Granville – who’s at the center of “Hysteria” — patented a battery-operated vibrator for treatment of muscle pain.

When was hysteria taken out of medical books?  Read more….

Salon