Hysterical

A Memoir

By: Elissa Bassist

Narrated by: Elissa Bassist

Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Writer Elissa Bassist shares her journey to reclaim her authentic voice in a culture that doesn't listen to women in this medical mystery, cultural criticism, and rallying cry.

Between 2016 and 2018, Elissa Bassist saw over twenty medical professionals for a variety of mysterious ailments. Bassist had what millions of American women had: pain that didn’t make sense to doctors, a body that didn’t make sense to science, a psyche that didn’t make sense to mankind. But then an acupuncturist suggested some of her physical pain could be caged fury finding expression, and that treating her voice would treat the problem. It did.

Growing up, Bassist's family, boyfriends, school, work, and television had the same expectation for a woman’s voice: less is more. She was called dramatic and insane for speaking her mind; she was accused of overreacting and playing victim for having unexplained physical pain; she was ignored or rebuked like women throughout history for using her voice “inappropriately” by expressing sadness or suffering or anger or joy.

Because of this, she said “yes” when she meant “no”; she didn’t tweet #MeToo; and she never spoke without fear of being "too emotional." So, she felt rage, but like a good woman, repressed it. In Hysterical, Bassist explains how girls and women internalize and perpetuate directives about their voice, making it hard to emote or “just speak up” and “burn down the patriarchy.” But her silence hurt more than anything she could ever say. Hysterical is a memoir of a voice lost and found, and a primer on new ways to think about a woman’s voice, where it’s being squashed and where it needs amplification. Bassist breaks her own silences and calls on others to do the same—to unmute their voice, listen to it above all others, and use it again without regret.

©2022 Elissa Bassist (P)2022 Hachette Books

Critic reviews

“Hysterical is staggeringly good. I am speechless, which as a reader, is a rare thing for me. I really just have a bunch of blubbering accolades to shower on Elissa. This is one of the most intelligent, painful, ridiculous, awesome, relevant things I've ever read. I am impressed.”—Roxane Gay

"One of the qualities I appreciated most about Hysterical is the way the author subtly and gracefully links her deeply personal life story to compelling questions about women’s sexuality, literature, history. We never notice her doing the connecting; the larger themes and analysis are seamlessly woven into the intimate story. She makes us think and care about not simply what happened to her, but about women’s bodies, our continued detachment from our own desire, our own complicity in the culture of sexual violence…This artful, moving work of creative nonfiction transcends the self, while keeping us rooted in the most intimate of stories.”—Danzy Senna, bestselling author of Caucasia and judge of the New School Chapbook Competition

“I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Elissa's writing. That was five loves....Quite a special, strong, funny voice."—Joey Soloway, creator/writer/director/Emmy-award winner of Transparent

Magnificently Voiced

Validates that patriarchy lives in our bodies & that it will kill women in systemic fruition if we don’t speak/write/draw/express our human ideas especially through our voices. I Stopped to say out loud “Yes!“ several times throughout the book and finished it in 2 days.

Hysterical!

Funny, thoughtful, heartbreaking, and inspiring! Thanks Elissa for sharing your voice and helping me to find mine.

Amazing

Amazing!!! Witty and clever. Very entertaining and relatable. I want to listen to it again! Elissa is a natural speaker. I have referred it to all my friends. I28 characters is a lot! I loved it. !!!!! I’ve got to be close to 128 characters. Not yet! I hope she writes another book. I would read it and buy it.

Truly Amazing!

Beautifully written!!! Deeply moving, touching and funny! I LOVE this book!!! Well researched and eye opening.

Amazing and much needed!

Thank you for expressing what we all are & have been experiencing forever, literally. I heard your solutions & I appreciate the information on how I can put women first in other ways in my life. Thank you again!

Such a needed book!

Elissa Bassist does such an amazing job of calling BS (autocorrect won't let me type the real word) on the patriarchy we call our current culture. With sometimes painful, sometimes hilarious, and always self-revealing stories, backed up with loads of research, Bassist summarizes the price women pay for being women and the clearest way to self empowerment: through using our voices. Fantastic narration too.

So, so, so good!

I learned so much, laughed so much, identified so much. Hysterical by Elissa Bassist is required reading for dismantling the white supremacist patriarchy

I already know this is my favorite book of 2023

I laughed and I cried listening to this, sometimes within a couple of pages. It's incredibly well-researched and very entertaining. As someone who has confounding health problems that medicine has no useful answers for, this book made me FURIOUS about what it means to be a woman (or at least, not a man) in the world - but also relieved that someone else gets it too. I absolutely loved it and I've recommended it to around 50 people, no exaggeration.

Love a woman’s voice loud and proud!

The honesty reveals truths that all women should be hysterical about. Cheers to doing the work and making it art!

Powerful and well-written

Very raw and poignant storytelling. The writing is great and having the author read the book brings it to life even more.