![]() Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy in Hysteria (2011) In 1883, he wrote: "I have avoided, and shall continue to avoid, the treatment of women by percussion, simply because I do not want to be hoodwinked, and help to mislead others, by the vagaries of the hysterical state." In other words, the absolute last thing he wanted to see was a female orgasm. But unlike in the film, Dr Granville was a prim old stick in his 50s, and only used his vibrator for the muscular massage of men. It is true that Dr Joseph Mortimer Granville invented an electromechanical vibrator, called Granville's Hammer, in the early 1880s. The film opened with the words: "This story is based on true events. Molly borrows, rather anachronistically, a line from Jaws: "You're going to need a bigger appointment book." Technology They try it out on a lusty housemaid, Molly (Sheridan Smith), with tremendous results: three "hysterical paroxysms" in five minutes. But then, inspired by his posh friend Edmund St John Smyth (Rupert Everett)'s newfangled electrical gadgets, he repurposes a feather duster to vibrate on a current. It looks like his career as a professional masturbator may be about to reach an, er, premature finish. Soon though, he develops what we might now think of as repetitive strain injury in his busy right wrist. Innovationīeing handsome, Dr Granville soon finds he is even more in demand with the unfortunately afflicted ladies than Dr Dalrymple. Jonathan Pryce is very game about getting down to this in the movie, bless him. Between then and the time of Sigmund Freud, when the world suddenly noticed women had sexuality, doctors merrily went on manually bringing their female patients to what they sometimes did not realise or accept was orgasm (and, as in the film, described in medicalised terms like "hysterical paroxysm") for about 1,900 years. Treatmentīy the 1st century AD, physicians had worked out that massaging the sufferer's genitals with fingers lubricated in special oils could relieve the disorder. The cause was thought to be sexual deprivation. The symptoms were said to include nervousness, insomnia, fainting, a lack of interest in food or (marital) sex, and women generally behaving in loud and irritating ways. According to Dr Rachel P Maines of the Cornell University School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, whose enthralling book The Technology of Orgasm is a history of vibrators, hysteria (from the Greek, "that which proceeds from the uterus") was commonly diagnosed in women as far back as 2000 BC in ancient Egypt. This annoys them so much that he keeps getting sacked, and he finally ends up at the upmarket practice of Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce), treating ladies suffering from hysteria. Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy) is an idealistic doctor in Victorian London, trying to convince his sceptical colleagues of germ theory and the importance of hygiene. Felicity Jones, Jonathan Pryce, Hugh Dancy and Hysteria (2011) Photograph: Sony Pics/Everett/Rex Features
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