Technology of the orgasm is the French translation of a work published there was ten years ago (in 1999) The Technology of orgasm : “hysteria,” the vibrator and women’s sexual satisfaction (The John Hopkins University Press), and that has been a huge success in the United States. It has been the subject of numerous reviews and has given rise to the production of a documentary film Passion and Power : the Technology of orgam (2007) by filmmakers Wendy Slick and Emiko Omori.
The book by Rachel Maines focusing on a pan in the history of medicine, history of technology and medical theories : the invention of the vibrator as a treatment for female hysteria. The vibrator electromechanical is in fact, a medical tool invented around the 1880’s to treat hysteria. It must be supplied to massage the pelvic manuals made by the doctors, which was until then the treatment of hysteria. As early as 1653, the treaty of medicine Pieter van Foreest calls about the affliction commonly called hysteria, massages of the genitals, which by the achievement of the “peak of excitement” must heal the afflicted. This technique is already described in the corpus hippocratique in the first century before J-C by Celsus… When you study the medical literature, one can only wonder at the pervasiveness of the recommendation of this practice.
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