Reviewed by Evelyn Hartogh

The Hysterical Alphabet is funnier each time you read it. This history of the medical condition known as hysteria or ‘the wandering womb’ follows the alphabet through history beginning at A with Aset in ancient Egypt, until Z at the modern day. The alphabet follows the medical and cultural history of women’s complaints in a lyrical surrealistic poetic fashion, rich with alliteration, and imagery, and abounding with cheesy jokes. Terri Kapsalis’s text is accompanied by Gina Litherland’s illustrations of people bent around in large letters that give the book the appearance of both a medieval manuscript and a parody of children’s ABCs.

Hysteria is a topic from rich in humour. From the absurd sounding remedies for women’s illnesses, to the constant assumption that women’s woes were due to their womb and their need for a child, hysteria is ripe for mockery. The jokes at the medical profession's expense reveal how hysteria was used to deny women equal health care. Hysteria blamed women for their health problems. It was a way of seeing the woman’s body as betraying her, rather than seeing her illness as a condition brought about by outside causes.

Kapsalis neatly weaves the circumstance of women’s lives as she poetically traces the history and geography of the wandering of the woman around the Western world from Egypt to Greece to Italy to England to present day North America. In all these places and times, the idea of hysteria caused by the womb is enforced on women to minimise and trivialise their complaints and problems and dissatisfactions. By basing each letter on a character from history, Kapsalis is able to chronologically chart the forms of oppression and restrictions that these women faced in their day-to-day lives. Her humour is based on pointing out the obvious and making a mockery of the medical jargon.

This is especially funny in the last entry, where Z is “going round and round … through ADD and OCD and SAD, past PMS and PTSD” (77). Here Kapsalis suggests that hysteria has simply manifested under new names and “Z takes Zoloft, a Xanax, and a zinc” (77). This impressive finish ties up the underlying argument of the book that these women weren’t ill – they were simply sick of their lives. By demonstrating the parallel between diagnosis of hysteria and contemporary depression and anxiety, Kapsalis is able to ground her argument in the familiar present day. Today, women experience stress due to the prevalence of violence against women, the demands on Western women to “have it all”, and a myriad of other modern apocalyptic concerns.

The Hysterical Alphabet is a joyful book that makes fun of the powerful medical and cultural forces that have impinged on women’s lives. At the same time the book also celebrates the rebellious spirit in women. It is a smile-inducing poem to read and manages to convey an impressive amount of information in a playful, rhythmic, lyrical and bouncy style. The book is a treasure trove of names from history, and offers readers a delightful starting point to discover more about women’s hidden history.

The Hysterical Alphabet
(2008)

by Terri Kapsalis with illustrations by Gina Litherland
Whitewalls (distributed in Australia by Footprint)
ISBN: 9780945323167
80pp AUD$19.95