What does Hysteria mean?

Muse: Hysteria Meaning

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Album cover for Hysteria album cover
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Hysteria Lyrics

It's bugging me, grating me
And twisting me around
Yeah I'm endlessly caving in
And turning inside out

'cause I want it now
I want it now
Give me your heart and your soul
And I'm breaking out
I'm breaking out
Last chance to lose...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Aug 6th 2006 !⃝

    I just think it's about wanting someone or something so badly it's driving you insane.

  2. anonymous
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    Aug 10th 2013 !⃝

    It is about him wanting his female sexual partner to achieve orgasm before he does. He is the one having the "Hysteria" in the song. It's driving him crazy that she hasn't come yet. The cure for Hysteria in women is an orgasm, but the interesting twist on the definition is that HE is having the Hysteria NOT her... Pretty certain this is EXACTLY what the song is about. Now read the lyrics and listen to the song with total understanding. You. Are. Well. CUM... haha

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  3. anonymous
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    Jul 27th 2012 !⃝

    I think that the song is about loving someone badly, but not wanting to show it because of previous mistakes and being hurt in the past (To be endlessly cold within, And dreaming I'm alive). So, that person just wants to be free to show emotions and love again.
    It's what this song means to me. And that's what is important I guess, what song means to you...

  4. anonymous
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    Jun 10th 2012 !⃝

    i think it's about this guy who wants to achieve his dreams quicker through drugs but knows its harms and hasitates because of that reason he wants it now but he knows that he has to give his heart and soul to do drugs and thats bugging him

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  5. anonymous
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    Jan 16th 2011 !⃝

    I believe that this song represents an obsession obviously, but it developes into way more than what he ever thought it would become. He tries to stop or end what he is doing (most likely a girl), but he can't, and almost doesn't want to, because he has accepted that monstrous form of himself he used to run from.

  6. anonymous
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    Dec 10th 2010 !⃝

    Actually Matt said its basically a sly reference to the female orgasm.

    "Hysteria was originally a now-defunct psychoanalytical diagnosis particularly afflicted to females, akin to sexual frustration. The treatment consisted of a massage of the genitals leading to "hysterical paroxysm", or what is now known as the female orgasm. It later came to mean overwhelming fear, panic or emotional excess, or alternatively, a mental disorder that is without an organic cause.[4] Hysteria is sometimes referred to as 'the slyest reference to a female orgasm in a rock song'"

  7. anonymous
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    Aug 3rd 2009 !⃝

    definitely about sex. "last chance to loose control" "I'll feel my heart implode" sometimes songs are as self-explanatory and simple as one big metaphor for sex

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  8. anonymous
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    Mar 31st 2009 !⃝

    After looking up "hysteria", I found that it was a medical condition usually found in females (rarely in men) that is "a strong sexual drive". Thus, I believe Hysteria is about desiring someone to an unbarable point. An amazing song on bass I must say.

  9. anonymous
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    Oct 3rd 2008 !⃝

    I think this song can be very well illustrated by Brad Pitt's line in fight club..which is something like "people work shit jobs to buy shit they don't need." Idk, its something like that anyways. The point I'm trying to make is that people in America and other industrialized nations work hard and rise to the top and for what? Money? Wealth? Power? Fame? Throughout the course of history, these vain desires have driven people to develop many, if not all, of the most prized technological, philosophical, ethical, and scientific advances. I think this song illustrates the pointlessness of it all. We work hard at our jobs and study hard at our universities for vain material possessions and concepts that mean essentially nothing. Therefore we are "endlessly cold withing and dreaming we're alive." Idk, maybe I'm just tired but I thought I was on to something

  10. anonymous
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    Aug 6th 2007 !⃝

    I agree with anonymous #1 that this song is about wanting someone or something or just anything that makes your life meaningful. It has one of the most amazing expressions ever: "to be endlessly cold within and dreaming I'm alive". That's exactly what happens when you are unable to feel anything anymore and you just watch life taking place somewhere around you and over you, but not inside you.

    Maybe he was trying to get rid of an addiction?...

    **
    morningstar

  11. anonymous
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    Jul 18th 2007 !⃝

    Poster 2 is spot on see musewiki.org. for the real interpretation by band itself

  12. anonymous
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    Jul 2nd 2007 !⃝

    Ya, I just watched the video and you pretty much just recapped it.

  13. anonymous
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    Nov 20th 2006 !⃝

    Degenerate19893 you so stole that idea from their video

  14. Degenerate19893
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    Mar 7th 2006 !⃝

    My opinion of this song is that the guy wakes up and has no idea of whats happened. It keeps switching between the night before and the present time so it is rather confusing. But as far as I can tell he has a hunch that his girlfriend or wife is a prostitute on the quiet. and finally he sees her get into someone elses car and he flips out. He then see's a video of her bieng beaten around the room and he goes completely 'Hysterical'and destroys the room. basically hysteria is a deep emotion af rage

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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