hysteric

A historical term still used informally and inappropriately by social workers and other professionals to describe a person with some or all of the following characteristics: overly dramatic behavior, overreaction to minor events, craving for attention and excitement, tantrums, appearance to others of shallowness and lack of genuineness, apparent helplessness and dependency, proneness to manipulative gestures, and suicide threats. In treatment, such a person would likely to be diagnosed as having a histrionic personality disorder.