Hysteria: The Consultant's Dilemma: Twentieth Century Demonology, Pejorative Epithet, or Useful Diagnosis?

Consultant psychiatrists are often asked to evaluate patients on the dimension of "hysteria." The term continues to suffer erosion through recent changes in definition. Labeling is a dangerous as well as useful procedure. Recently acquired information makes a diagnostic toilette necessary and possible, so as to promote constructive use of the term and to avoid its misuse and abuse.