Med Secoli. 1992 ; 4(2): 59-50.

[The female nature]

Ritarossi P.

Dipartimento fi Medicina Sperimentale, UniversitÃ La Sapienza, Roma, Italy.

The occidental culture has always underlined a particular interpretation of the sexual difference; according to this, the woman belongs to materiality and, at the same time, to the magic world. This conception of the woman like a powerful creature and the consequent fear of the uterus, the organ holder of the femininality, was very spread in the educated and popular traditions and goes on until today within the folklore. The madre is called the uterus, that popular idea considers a self-moving being (the ancient medicine based the concept of hysteria on this, too), a formless animal with many limbs; so, in this way, moving and sending out branches, it can cause illness in the female organism, that is the result of this free movement in the vital spaces.