Hysterical F-Frenchman's habitual response (8)
I believe the answer is:
frenetic
'hysterical' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'f-frenchman's habitual response' is the wordplay.
'frenchman' becomes 'rene'.
'habitual response' becomes 'tic' (I've seen this in other clues).
'f'+'rene'+'tic'='FRENETIC'
(Other definitions for frenetic that I've seen before include "Distractedly hyperactive" , "Demented" , "Wildly fast and energetic" , "Maniacal" , "Hectic" .)