Transient hysterical symptoms These avid Harry Potter fans expressed themselves with exaggerated emotionality and lack of restraint at the midnight launch of one of the books in the series. Similar reactions, along with fainting, tremors, and even convulsions, have been common at concerts by musical idols dating back to the 1940s. Small wonder that expressive fans of this kind are regularly described as “hysterical” or “histrionic” by the press—