In colloquial language, the word "hysterical" is used derogatorily for anything artificial, theatrical, and excessively exaggerated. Psychiatry and psychology have associated the term hysteria with a multitude of physical and mental symptoms and disorders, which only received a unified meaning and explanation through Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis. Although the classical hysterical conditions described at that time have become increasingly rare throughout the 20th century, the perception of hysteria as a reaction to a long-overcome repressive sexual morality has made Freud's concept appear obsolete. However, Stavros Mentzos demonstrates with numerous impressive examples that the hysterical mode of conflict processing through unconscious enactments remains relevant—not only for understanding psychopathological and psychosomatic dynamics.