Hysteria in the present day

Have you ever noticed how some people – or maybe even you – always seem to have to prove something? To be interesting, brilliant, perfect in the eyes of others, while inside everything seems more complicated? This way of being in the world has deep roots: it is not just theatrics or need for attention, but a style of mind functioning that stems from emotions that are difficult to feel or integrate.

Those who live this way often feel strong emotions — anger, desire, sadness, fear — that seem impossible to handle. So instead of experiencing them as an internal experience, he or she “turns” them into external signals: gestures, words, behaviors or even physical symptoms become a way to communicate what one cannot fully feel. This is not manipulation: it is the mind’s attempt to cope with overwhelming emotions without being overwhelmed by them.

Today this can manifest itself in very contemporary ways. In social media, for example, it can become the maniacal care of image, the search for likes and approvals, the need to show off a perfect life. At work or in friendships, it can appear as constant enthusiasm, extreme helpfulness, a focus on being liked or noticed. Behind all this, however, there is often an emotional fragility: a difficulty in tolerating what one feels without having to turn it into a spectacle, without having to manage it through the approval of others.

A central aspect concerns desire and connection with others. Those who follow this style may have charm, energy, creativity, but often struggle to live intimately with their desire or to be with complex emotions without indirect or symbolic gestures. The body and relationships then become tools to mediate between what one feels and what one can show.

Psychotherapy offers a different space: a safe place to observe, feel and integrate emotions without having to enact them. Working with a therapist means discovering how one’s habitual patterns work in real life and, little by little, learning to be comfortable with internal desires, emotions, and conflicts. It means developing a more flexible mind, a more allied body, and more authentic relationships.

Thus, what used to appear as emotional chaos, tension or “need to appear” becomes a resource: creative energy, vitality, the ability to be with oneself and others in a truer way. Modern hysteria is not a defect to be corrected, but a functioning of the mind that can be transformed into greater freedom, integration and authenticity.