A condition where the hair becomes tangled. Plica polonia was rife in medieval Poland, affecting women, causing apoplexy, convulsions and even death if the tangled hair was cut off.
The first case of modern Plica was recorded by Dr. Lepage in 1884: the case history of a 17 year old woman who was described as having high nervous tension which found vent in the hair itself.
("Plica neuropathia - Results of Hysteria" British Journal of Psychiatry, 1993)
In the 19th century, mesmerism and sleeping bouts grasped the public imagination.
How to beat a wife: The editor of an American paper has found a way to beat his wife in the kindest and most considerable manner. He has her mesmerised by any travelling mesmeriser, and then thrashes the operator like vengeance. As feeling, taste, etc. are transferable, she catches a licking, and the world won't call the husband a brute.
A mill girl in St. Ninians had to be rescued by a travelling hypnotist when she mesmerised herself. (Stirling Observer, 1841)
About 23 per cent of the women made adequate housewives again and another 32 per cent less adequate, but often sufficiently to bring together a disrupted home and to provide some comfort for the other members of the family.”
In the case of two women who had been dominating and aggressive before marriage but who after operation had lost this and had become easy-going and slack, the husband in one case welcomed the change and was much happier; in the other he felt uneasy and deplored his wife’s “laziness”.”
(From “Studies in Lobotomy” Greenblatt, Arnott, Solomon (1950))