Hysterical, Eleanor Morgan
Hysterical, Eleanor Morgan
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Hysterical
Why We Need to Talk About Women, Hormones, and Mental Health

Author: Eleanor Morgan

Narrator: Eleanor Morgan

Unabridged: 7 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Seal Press

Published: 08/27/2019

Synopsis

A riveting exploration of the link between women's hormones and mental health--with advice, personal testimony, facts, and research creating a portrait of how hormones contribute to make up the "female animal"

Hysterical seeks to explore the connections between hormones and health, particularly in the frequent mood changes and mental health issues women typically chalk up to the influence of hormones.
Journalist Eleanor Morgan investigates the relationship between biochemistry, our bodies, and our mental health, including the context for this discussion: the historic culture of silence around women's bodies. As Morgan argues, we've gotten better at talking about mental health, but we still shy away from discussing periods, miscarriage, endometriosis, and menopause. That results in a lack of vital understanding for women, particularly as those processes are inextricably connected to our mental health; by exploring women's bodies in conjunction with our minds, Morgan urges for new thinking about our health.
Examining the mythology of female hormones, the ways that culture shapes our perceptions of women's bodies, and the latest medical research, Hysterical skillfully paints a portrait of the modern landscape of women and health--and shows us how to navigate stigma and misinformation.

About Eleanor Morgan

Eleanor Morgan has written for the Guardian, the Observer, the Times, the Independent, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, Vogue, VICE, McSweeney's, The British Psychological Society's Research Digest and others. Her first book, Anxiety for Beginners: A Personal Investigation was published by Bluebird (PanMacmillan) in 2016. Morgan subsequently completed a Masters in Psychology and is now training as a psychologist.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Audra (ouija.reads) on August 30, 2019

This book is a thorough examination of the hormonal journey women experience throughout their lives from their first period to having babies to menopause, along with issues they experience along the way and how cultural perception continues to adversely affect women who need help understanding what’......more

Goodreads review by Mel on January 08, 2020

I'm always looking for more books like this where the author presents an account of her own experience alongside specific scientific data showing how she was mistreated by doctors or in a greater sense, society as a whole, and pointing out how we can be better moving forward, believing women and peo......more

Goodreads review by Gillian on June 27, 2021

This wasn’t what I expected it to be. I had hoped it would give concrete advice like, “if you have this specific mental health concern, you may have this certain hormonal imbalance.” It did not do that. Instead, it read like a high school biology textbook, describing to me how babies are made and wh......more

Goodreads review by Kristine on September 04, 2019

Hysterical is a deep-dive exploration into the historical and current interpretation of hormones’ role in women’s mental health. It offers an amazing presentation of how our patriarchal medical system demonized hormone-related female anguish over the years (the word “hysterical” itself comes from th......more

Goodreads review by Laura on July 15, 2019

This book represents the most thorough discussion around female hormonal cycles - and the resultant effects on the body - that I have ever read. I learned a huge amount about about PMS, and all the attendant side-effects in a scientific and comprehensive fashion, presented in a conversational and re......more

Quotes

"An urgent page-turner connecting the thread between the author's own reproductive history to the cultural, political, and social factors that convince women their bodies are up for grabs, Eleanor Morgan makesa convincing case for calling out the patriarchal systems that substitute the word "crazy" for real care. Reading Hysterical should be a rite of passage for every woman who wants to relearn her body and reclaim her self."—Sheila Hamilton, author of All the Things We Never Knew: Chasing the Chaos of Mental Illness and host of the podcast Beyond Well

"Hysterical is a thoroughly researched book on women's bodies and women's emotions, our moods and our physical memories. A topic that should never go out of style, especially in a time when our reproductive rights are being overturned and horrifically discarded, Eleanor Morgan has written and created a definitive road map for all of us. Filled with wisdom and wit and brilliant insight, Morgan covers everything from menstruation to menopause to the #MeToo movement, from PMS to PMDD to PTSD, from dietary supplements to dietary issues to hormonal replacement therapies. To quote Morgan, 'It is in our capacity to inquire, analyze, look around and ask for better that we are most powerful.' Eleanor Morgan has done just that."—Amy Ferris, author of Marrying George Clooney: Confessions from a Midlife Crisis and editor of Shades of Blue: Writers on Depression, Suicide, and Feeling Blue

"Power through knowledge is precisely what [Eleanor Morgan] sets out to give her readers in this exploration into the myriad ways the body affects the mind. From a refresher course on the menstrual cycle to the societal and cultural ways in which women's bodies are controlled, Hormonal feels like an essential guide in helping us truly understand our cores."—Vogue UK

"The essential hormone handbook."—Stylist

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