Hysteria is a 2011 American romantic comedy film directed by Tanya Wexler. It stars Felicity Jones, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rupert Everett and Hugh Dancy. The film, set in the Victorian era shows how the medical management of hysteria led to the invention of the vibrator. The film's title refers to the once-common medical diagnosis of female hysteria. Set at the end of the 19th century, the film depicts the management of “hysteria”, a then popular diagnosis of women displaying an array of symptoms including nervousness, insomnia, exhaustion, depression, cramps, and sexual frustration. Medical practitioners of the day tried to manage hysteria by massaging the genital area, decently covered under a curtain, eliciting "paroxysmal convulsions", far from recognizing that they were inducing orgasms. In the movie, the young physician Dr. Mortimer Granville gets a job to help Dr. Dalrymple who runs a successful practice treating women. He seems to be good at massaging, getting a sizable following. The job is strenuous and his hand musculature is unable to keep up with the task. Fortunately, his friend Lord Edmund St. John-Smythe has developed an electrical fan, and its vibrations give Dr.