hysteria

I

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. delirium, frenzy, agitation, feverishness, mania, rage, hysterics, madness, insanity, craze, excitement, uproar, convulsion, fit, paroxysm, laughing jag*, crying jag*; see also confusion 2 , excitement , nervousness 1 .

Syn.- hysteria is applied in psychiatry to certain psychogenic disorders characterized by excitability, anxiety, sensory and motor disturbances, or the involuntary simulation of blindness, deafness, etc.; mania in its basic sense of a mental disorder characterized by excitability, exaggerated feelings of well-being, excessive activity, etc. describes the phase of manic-depressive psychosis that is distinguished from depression ; delirium denotes a temporary state of extreme mental disturbance (marked by restlessness, incoherence, and hallucinations) that occurs during fevers, in alcoholic psychosis, etc.; frenzy , not used technically in psychiatry, implies extreme emotional agitation in which self-control is lost; in extended use, hysteria suggests an outburst of wild, uncontrolled feeling [ laughed and cried in a fit of hysteria] , mania , a craze for something [ a mania for surfing ] , and delirium , rapturous excitement [ a delirium of joy ]

II

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

hysterics, frenzy, madness, delirium, craze, panic, mania, anxiety, agitation, fit, outburst.