The notion of paroxysm , which comes from the Greek language, refers to a exaggeration of something . The concept is often used with reference to the inflamed expression of an opinion or a feeling, although it also appears in the field of medicine (understood as the violent manifestation of a disease ).
Paroxysm, therefore, can be considered as a Figure of speech which is to exaggerate and reflect with excessive passion some question. If a young man observes a woman which is attractive, you can tell a friend: “Look what a pretty girl who walks through the square”. A paroxysm applied to the same situation could be: "Look at that heavenly goddess who walks her beauty without equal and exalts the sense of sight, filling our hearts with fire".
Paroxysms usually appear linked to fanaticism . A person may indicate that Lionel messi He is a great soccer player but, if he takes that recognition towards paroxysm, he could indicate "There was no person in history who has a skill similar to that of Lionel Messi, the only human being who can perform miracles on the field and who has no opponent capable of shading him".
In the field of politics , paroxysms can arise from the admirers of a charismatic leader or from the followers of a despot: “The beloved General Cupittol, the only leader of these lands, is a brave man who, with his example and his mastery, guides his people every day and defends him from the enemies who want to harm him, receiving the love of the masses for his fantastic everyday actions ”.
Hysterical paroxysm
Also known as female hysteria, hysterical paroxysm was a disease that Western medicine diagnosed until the second half of the 19th century. During the Victorian era, this disorder was associated with a large number of symptom , such as difficulty sleeping, fainting, fluid retention, muscle spasms, feeling of heaviness in the abdomen, irritability, severe headaches, conflicting attitudes, loss of appetite and shortness of breath.
The treatment received by patients diagnosed with this alleged disease was called massage pelvic, and consisted of the stimulation of their genitals by the doctor until they reached orgasm, which was then known as hysterical paroxysm, for believing that repressed sexual desire was an anomaly. However, this simply responded that the role of women was reduced to reproduction , with no place for pleasure that is currently associated with sexual intercourse. Another of the normal procedures to treat female hysteria was vaginal lavage.
Sigmund Freud studied hysterical paroxysm and thus began to see the existence of the unconscious, in addition to the already known consciousness, and concluded that this disease arose in response to a trauma that had been repressed in this plane to which there was no voluntary access, and that emerged without remedy through attacks that seemed inexplicable. These arguments based on the consequences of sexual dissatisfaction were the basis of the current psychoanalysis.
In the mid-19th century, many women were diagnosed with hysteria female, and this was due to the lack of precision of the symptoms associated with this disease; practically, any discomfort suffered by a woman could lead to the treatments described above. Interestingly, the invention of the vibrator took place in the year 1870 and reached the market at the end of the century, a decade before the vacuum and the iron . Far from being a taboo, as today, this device appeared normally in home appliance catalogs of the early 1900s.
