In the Victorian Era, doctors diagnosed women with feminine hysteria when they exhibited symptoms such as nervousness, loss of appetite for food or sex, and a "tendency to cause trouble". These women would undergo a "pelvic massage" — manual stimulation of the genitals by the doctor (sometimes for hours and hours) until the patient experienced "hysterical paroxysm" (orgasm). Extreme cases resulted in women forced in to insane asylums and removal of the uterus.
Hysteria is about a young doctor, Mortimer Grandville who is hired as an assistant in a private practice by Dr. Robert Dalrymple. Dr. Dalrymple uses pelvic massage to treat the well to do woman and teaches Mortimer his methods. Mortimer & Dalrymple's methods prove to be a huge success until Mortimer suddenly has hand cramps and is then fired by Dalrymple. When Mortimer turns to his lifelong friend Edmund St. John-Smythe for advice while using Edmund's new invention (a electric powered feather duster) and discovers that the vibrations are felt throughout his body, he realizes that the duster may be the solution to a much quicker "hysterical paroxysm". Thus, the first vibrator is born!
It was a good romantic comedy and the interactions between Hugh Dancy (Grandville) and Maggie Gyllenhaal (Charlotte Dalrymple) are believable. I give it 8 stars out of 10.
