The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology)

New
Paperback
2001
$25.70

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.

Synopsis

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.

$25.70

Quantity

2 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Edition: New edition
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 01 Mar 2001
ISBN 10: 0801866464
ISBN 13: 9780801866463
Book Overview: This title won the American Historical Association's Herbert Feis Prize.

Media Reviews

Thorough, original, and surprising. -- Sarah Boxer * New York Times Book Review *
Full of wonderful descriptions of the 'job nobody wanted,' including photographs of early vibrators and vaginal electrodes. -- Jeanette Winterson * Times (London) *
Feminist scholarship exactly as it should be: a work that not only illuminates an astonishing bit of herstory, but does so with a neat balance of anger, wit and humor... A wonderful book. -- Carol Lynn Mithers * L.A. Weekly *
Exhaustively researched... decidedly offbeat. -- Natalie Angier * New York Times *
Here's a provocative history with a chip on its shoulder and a buzz under its skirt... Exhumes startling facts from the underground sexual history of the early twentieth century. -- Will Blythe * Mirabella *
Maines has produced an exhaustive and deliciously savage history of the vibrator-as-sex-aid... This fascinating and exquisitely referenced true story reads like twisted science fiction. * Library Journal *
A titillating and often hilarious account of the rise and fall (as it were) of the vibrator as a medical tool for the treatment of hysteria... A book that can delight as well as enlighten. * Journal of the American Medical Association *
Rachel Maines offers readers a stimulating, surprising, and often humorous account of hysteria and its treatment throughout the ages. * Birdbooker Report *

Author Bio

Rachel P. Maines is an independent scholar and a technical processing assistant at Cornell University's Hotel School Library. She is also the author of numerous articles in scholarly and popular publications.