From the time of Hippocrates until the 1920s, massaging female patients to orgasm was a staple of medical practice among Western physicians in the treatment of "hysteria," an ailment once considered both common and chronic in women. Doctors loathed this time-consuming procedure and for centuries relied on midwives. Later, they substituted the efficiency of mechanical devices, including the electric vibrator, invented in the 1880s. In The Technology of Orgasm, Rachel Maines offers readers a stimulating, surprising, and often humorous account of hysteria and its treatment throughout the ages, focusing on the development, use, and fall into disrepute of the vibrator as a legitimate medical device.
Contents: Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1 THE JOB NOBODY WANTED The Androcentric Model of Sexuality Hysteria as a Disease Paradigm The Evolution of the Technology Chapter 2 FEMALE SEXUALITY AS HYSTERICAL PATHOLOGY Hysteria in Antiquity and the Middle Ages Hysteria in Renaissance Medicine The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries The Freudian Revolution and Its Aftermath Chapter 3 "MY GOD, WHAT DOES SHE WANT?" Physicians and the Female Orgasm Masturbation "Frigidity" and Anorgasmia Female Orgasm in the Post-Freudian World What Ought to Be, and What We'd Like to Believe Chapter 4 "INVITING THE JUICES DOWNWARD" Hydropathy and Hydrotherapy Electrotherapeutics Mechanical Massagers and Vibrators Instrumental Prestige in the Vibratory Operating Room Consumer Purchase of Vibrators after 1900 Chapter 5 REVISING THE ANDROCENTRIC MODEL Orgasmic Treatment in the Practice of Western Medicine The Androcentric Model in Heterosexual Relationships The Vibrator as Technology and Totem Notes Notes on Sources Index
