>the male-specific equivalent for the female-specific term "hysteria"

In psychiatry, hysteria is not viewed as being female specific, according to two friends of mine who have long background in the field. There are two definitions, the "medical" one being:

A neurosis marked by conversion symptoms, a calm mental attitude and episodes of hallucinations, somnambulism, amnesia and other mental aberrations.

The "non-medical" definition is:

Excessive or uncontrollable emotion, as panic or fear.

Note the term calm mental attitude in the first definition, which is antithetical to the second.

Sandra and Mark, who between them have somewhere around 50 years in the mental health field, assure me that true hysteria (the first definition) is no more prevalent among females than is the common cold. Neither one is aware of a male-specifc word.

And I can assure you from my 10 years in a rescue squad that the common hysteria (second definition) is just as probable among males as among females.




TEd