Hysterical Quotes

“In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no one listens.”
― Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

“So Jason, in England, do you eat these ‘Farmer burgers?’” Wong Tong asked.
“Farmer burgers? I don’t know what they are?”
“Maybe I have the name wrong. I remember the name from the song,” Wong Tong explained.
“What song?” Jason asked.
“You know the ‘E, I, E, I, O’ song.”
‘E, I, E, I, O’ song?
Jason started to roar with laughter. He tried to speak but was laughing, much to the annoyance of Wong Tong. He held his chest, laughing still hurt his ribs.
“You mean the ‘Old Macdonald had a farm’ song. You mean Macdonald’s burgers,” he said, laughing. “Yes, I have had them. They’re good.”
― Mark A. Cooper, Revenge

“I'm not crazy, I was abused.
I'm not shy, I'm protecting myself.
I'm not bitter, I'm speaking the truth.
I'm not hanging onto the past, I've been damaged. I'm not delusional, I lived a nightmare.
I'm not weak, I was trusting.
I'm not giving up, I'm healing.
I'm not incapable of love, I'm giving.
I'm not alone. I see you all here.
I'm fighting this.”
― Rene Smith

“If we happened to be in rehearsal downstairs in my room and a neighbor padded across the lawn to rap gently on the window and ask us to please be more quiet, Natalie might simply lift up her skirt and mash her vagina against the window while extending her middle finger.”
― Augusten Burroughs, Running with Scissors

“Taken from the dedication in my debut novel Exactly 23 days. To honour all women on International Women's day.

For women everywhere: When you know you are finally mended, spread the word, hold out your hand, share some love from your heart and some laughter from your soul and be there for a new member of the sisterhood who needs your help. Let's all help our sisters worldwide to stand tall and know, they can and they will recover, survive and thrive, to live the life they deserve.
To all the sisters who reached out and held my hand in whatever way you could, who cried my tears with me, and laughter my laughter too, I thank every one of you. I survived.”
― Jayne Higgins, Exactly 23 Days

“No, I mean earlier. Where’d you go? You weren't here with me because no, nothing happened. I could see on your face that something was wrong, so I didn't do it. But now you need to think long and hard about where you were inside that head of yours, because you were panicked. You were hysterical and I need to know what it was that took you there so I can make sure you never go back.”
― Colleen Hoover, Hopeless

“You have the emotional capacity of a garden gnome.”
― Lex Martin, Dearest Clementine

“Don't open the door to strangers," said her dad. "Unless they're selling something. Then open the door and see if I'd like it. If I'd like it, buy it for me. But nothing cheap. I have standards. Nothing too expensive, either. My standards aren't that high.”
― Derek Landy, The Dying of the Light

“You've never heard of bagpipes?" Cody asked, sounding aghast. "They're as Scottish as kilts and red armpit hair!"
"Um . . . yuck?" I said.
"That's it." Cody said. "Steelheart has to fall so we can get back to educating children properly. This is an offense against the dignity of my motherland."
"Great," Prof said. "I'm glad we now have proper motivation.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Steelheart

“Which one hadn't he walked down? Was it Barkovitch? Collie Parker? Percy What'shisname? Who was it? 'GARRATY!' the crowd screamed deliriously. 'GARRATY, GARRATY, GARRATY!'
Was it Scramm? Gribble? Davidson? A hand on his shoulder. Garraty shook it off impatiently. The dark figure beckoned, beckoned in the rain, beckoned for him to come and walk, to come and play the game. And it was time to get started. There was still so far to walk.”
― Stephen King as Richard Bachman

“Most of you Mistborn are probably too proud to crawl. I'm surprised you were willing to do so yourself."
"Too proud to crawl?" Kelsier said. "Nosense! Why, I'd say that we Mistborn are too proud not to be humble enough to go crawling about--in a dignified manner, of course."
Dockson frowned, approaching the desk. "Kell, that didn't make any sense."
"We Mistborn need not make sense.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Final Empire

“DENIAL OF EMOTIONS
Our culture does not handle emotions well. We like folks to be happy and fine. We learn rituals of acting happy and fine at an early age. I can remember many times telling people "I'm fine" when I felt like the world was caving in on me. I often think of Senator Muskie who cried on the campaign trail when running for president. From that moment on he was history. We don't want a president who has emotions. We would rather have one that can act! Emotions are certainly not acceptable in the workplace. True expression of any emotions that are not "positive" are met with disdain.”
― John Bradshaw, Healing the Shame that Binds You

“To take a specific example, a researcher in the Journal of Traumatic Stress interviewed 129 women with documented histories of child sexual abuse that occurred between the ages of 10 months and 12 years. Of those, 38 percent had forgotten the abuse. Of the remaining women who remembered, 16 percent reported that they had for a period of time forgotten but subsequently recovered their memories. [46] Thus, during that time a "false negative" recorded for those women. These are the sort of distinctions for which Elaine Showalter in Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media fails to account.”
― Janet Walker, Trauma Cinema: Documenting Incest and the Holocaust

“What's this about slippers?" Stephanie's mom said, walking in.
"Dad's just saying he could never lead the resistance against a robot army because he wears slippers."
"This is very true," her mum said.
"Then it's decided," Stephanie's father said. "When the robot army makes itself known, I will be one of the first traitors to sell out the human race."
"Wow," said Stephanie.
"Now that's an about-turn," said her mum.
"It's the only way," said her dad. "I have to make sure my family survives. The two of you and that other one, the small one--"
"Alice."
"That's her. You're all that matter to me. You're all I care about. I will betray the human race so that the robot army spares you. And then later, I will betray you so that the robot army spares me. It's a dangerous ploy, but someone has to be willing to take the big risks, and I'll be damned if I'm about to let anyone else gamble with my family's future."
"You're so brave," Stephanie's mum said.
"I know," said her dad, and then quieter, "I know.”
― Derek Landy, The Dying of the Light

“Kelsier rapped lightly on the door, and Dockson strolled over, pulling it open.
"And he makes his stunning entry!" Kelsier announced, sweeping into the room, throwing back his mistcloak.
Dockson snorted, shutting the doors. "You're truly a wonder to behold, Kell. Particularly the soot stains on your knees.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Final Empire

“I grunted, hauling the rope hand over hand. A plaintive squeak came from the pulley system with each draw, as if I had strapped some unfortunate mouse to a torture device and was twisting with glee.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Steelheart

“I still couldn't imagine that she was really, truly pregnant; maybe this was an hysterical pregnancy. But Sarah was never hysterical. Enthusiastic, yes, ironic on occasion. I couldn't imagine a doctor saying, "No, it's just an ironic pregnancy.”
― James Lileks, Falling Up the Stairs

“The history of hysteria is a history of the relation between the colonizing father and the colonized devalued other.”
― Judith L. Alpert, SEXUAL ABUSE RECALLED: Treating Trauma in the Era of the Recovered Memory Debate

“You're perfect just the way you are...is what your guidance counselor says. And she's an alcoholic.”
― Libba Bray, Beauty Queens

“Although the terminology implies scientific endorsement, false memory syndrome is not currently an accepted diagnostic label by the APA and is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Seventeen researchers (Carstensen et al., 1993) noted that this syndrome is a "non-psychological term originated by a private foundation whose stated purpose is to support accused parents" (p.23). Those authors urged professionals to forgo use of this pseudoscientific terminology. Terminology implies acceptance of this pseudodiagnostic label may leave readers with the mistaken impression that false memory syndrome is a bona fide clinical disorder supported by concomitant empirical evidence.(85)...

... it may be easier to imagine women forming false memories given biases against women's mental and cognitive abilities (e.g., Coltrane & Adams, 1996). 86”
― Michelle Rae Hebl

“I'm sure you do know how to pick guys back on the farm, but this is a whole different world. You can't just grunt and bend some guy over your tractor.”
― Maris Black, Pinned

“Very often do the captains of such ships take those absent-minded young philosopher to task, upbraiding them with not feeling sufficient "interest" in the voyage; half-hinting that they are so helplessly lost to all honourable ambition, as that in their secret souls they would rather not see whales than otherwise. But all in vain; those young Platonists have a notion that their vision is imperfect; they are short-sighted; what us, then, to strain the visual nerve? They have left their opera glasses at home.”
― Herman Melville

“Maybe it wasn’t rational, but she didn’t like the idea of Leo invading her little world. Yesterday, Brooklyn had belonged to her. The Long Island ’burbs where she’d grown up had felt far away from the brick streets and renovated factory spaces of Brooklyn. In this job, she’d felt truly independent, putting down her own fragile roots in a new place.

Fast forward twenty-four hours, and her daddy had joined the workplace and her ex-boyfriend had shown up to remind her of all that she’d lost. Really, a girl could be forgiven for feeling slightly hysterical.

Not that there was any time to panic.”
― Sarina Bowen, Rookie Move

“Disclosures of childhood sexual abuse have frequently been discredited through the diagnosis of hysteria. In this view, women/female children were seen either as culpable seducers who were not really damaged by the sex abuse or as dramatic fantasizers projecting their own incestuous wishes onto the father. I will argue that this view pervades the false-memory movement and can be found, for example, in Gardner's work (1992).”
― Judith L. Alpert, SEXUAL ABUSE RECALLED: Treating Trauma in the Era of the Recovered Memory Debate

“Talkatives complain, cry, shout, brag, and are more hysterical about their lives than something else; don’t be a part of that tragedy! Perhaps it's been a while now that you have been complaining, crying and shouting about your "labour pains". It's time to show us your baby!”
― Israelmore Ayivor, The Great Hand Book of Quotes

“Blaming therapy, social work and other caring professions for the confabulation of testimony of 'satanic ritual abuse' legitimated a programme of political and social action designed to contest the gains made by the women's movement and the child protection movement. In efforts to characterise social workers and therapists as hysterical zealots, 'satanic ritual abuse' was, quite literally, 'made fun of': it became the subject of scorn and ridicule as interest groups sought to discredit testimony of sexual abuse as a whole. The groundswell of support that such efforts gained amongst journalists, academics and the public suggests that the pleasures of disbelief found resonance far beyond the confines of social movements for people accused of sexual abuse. These pleasures were legitimised by a pseudo-scientific vocabulary of 'false memories' and 'moral panic' but as Daly (1999:219-20) points out 'the ultimate goal of ideology is to present itself in neutral, value-free terms as the very horizon of objectivity and to dismiss challenges to its order as the "merely ideological"'.
The media spotlight has moved on and social movements for people accused of sexual abuse have lost considerable momentum. However, their rhetoric continues to reverberate throughout the echo chamber of online and 'old' media. Intimations of collusion between feminists and Christians in the concoction of 'satanic ritual abuse' continue to mobilise 'progressive' as well as 'conservative' sympathies for men accused of serious sexual offences and against the needs of victimised women and children.
This chapter argues that, underlying the invocation of often contradictory rationalising tropes (ranging from calls for more scientific 'objectivity' in sexual abuse investigations to emotional descriptions of 'happy families' rent asunder by false allegations) is a collective and largely unarticulated pleasure; the catharthic release of sentiments and views about children and women that had otherwise become shameful in the aftermath of second wave feminism. It seems that, behind the veneer of public concern about child sexual abuse, traditional views about the incredibility of women's and children's testimony persist. 'Satanic ritual abuse has served as a lens through which these views have been rearticulated and reasserted at the very time that evidence of widespread and serious child sexual abuse has been consolidating. p60”
― Michael Salter, Organised Sexual Abuse

“The main problem with the 'histronic behaviour' hypothesis, like the alternatives, is that it is unitary and simplistic, while the phenomena are complex and heterogeneous. When advanced as a sole and complete explanation, ''hysteria' is a vague and inadequate construct. ... "secondary gain and hysteria can occur as reactions to real events, real sociological problems, and real biomedical diseases, so the presence of these elements does not necessarily weigh in favour of Satanic ritual abuse's being entirely unreal. Ritual abuse cases need to be managed in such a way that hysteria, regression, grandiosity, and secondary gain are discouraged rather than fostered. However, it must be remembered that 'hysteria' and 'attention seeking' explanations generally function as justifications for not thinking about the complexities of the clinical problem.”
― Colin A. Ross, Satanic Ritual Abuse: Principles of Treatment

“A period of profound depression can trigger a period of hysterical writing. We create our own afflictions; it is only right that we must cure ourselves.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls