A more modern understanding of hysteria as a psychological disorder was advanced by the work of Jean-Martin Charcot, a French neurologist, and Sigmund Freud. Many now consider hysteria to be a legacy diagnosis (i.e., a catch-all junk diagnosis), particularly due to its long list of possible manifestations: one Victorian physician cataloged 75 pages of possible symptoms of hysteria and called the list incomplete.
The definition of "hysteria" in the Chinese context is rather simple, "指情绪异常激动，举止失常/means being in morbidly excited condition and behaving abnormally"(Xian Dai Han Yu Da Ci Dian, Shanghai : Han yu da ci dian chu ban she, 2000). Compared to the definitions of "hysteria" in OED, the Chinese definition is only equivalent to the second definition in English. Apparently, the first definition which is the pathological one was lost during its transformation into Chinese. A possible explanation to this is that before the word was imported into Chinese, it had already been used mainly for describing people's emotion instead of the psychological disorder in the English context. Therefore, the question of "when the word was imported into Chinese" is critical: if the hypothesis was true, then the import date should be within the time period when "hysteria" was mainly used to describe people's emotion.
The Day When It Came to China.
The earliest traceable appearance of "歇斯底里" in Chinese was in the translated version of "The Electrician and electrical engineer" v.06(Electrical Pub. Co., 1887). It said, "在此过程中, 集体尿床,或集体歇斯底里,虽然不可以原谅,但却可以理解/In this process, group bedwetting, or mass hysteria, although unforgivable, it is understandable". In this context, the word "hysteria" is more likely to represent the meaning of morbid excitement.