���Beth Benoit writes: >I'd like to add a very interesting book I got a few years ago, >at the suggestion of (I think!) Allen Esterson. It's a psychiatric >and photographic history (translated from the French) of >patients from "the notorious Parisian asylum for insane >and incurable women" in Paris, Salpétrière at the turn of the >century, called *Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the >Photographic Iconography of the Salpétrière.*
Not me, Beth! For books discussing Charcot and hysteria I'd have suggested Macmillan's *Freud Evaluated*, or from a different viewpoint, Richard Webster's *Why Freud Was Wrong*. For the dangers of diagnosing "hysteria" when somatic symptoms apparently defy explanation, see I. S. Cooper's *The Victim is Always the Same* (1974). Peter Medawar's review in *Pluto's Republic* (pp. 136-140) reports Cooper's account of children who contracted the neurological disease Dystonia musculorum deformans (DMD), which produces grotesque deformations in the patient's limbs due to muscle contractions. The symptoms of three of Cooper's young patients had at first been diagnosed as "hysterical" by psychoanalysts. The progression of their illness eventually led to their being treated by Dr Cooper by a (then) new technique of cryosurgery that enabled him to ameliorate the symptoms using a neurological procedure. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org -------------------------------------------------- Re: [tips] Help with hysteria Beth Benoit Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:52:03 -0800 To all of the other excellent suggestions given by other TIPSters, I'd like to add a very interesting book I got a few years ago, at the suggestion of (I think!) Allen Esterson. It's a psychiatric and photographic history (translated from the French) of patients from "the notorious Parisian asylum for insane and incurable women" in Paris, Salpétrière at the turn of the century, called *Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of the Salpétrière.* http://books.google.com/books?id=4DDpLqv_puEC&dq=invention+of+hysteria+charcot&source=gbs_navlinks_s Jean-Martin Charcot induced many of the 5,000 patients at the Salpétrière to "perform" their own hysterias so he could show the photographs (and sometimes actual demonstrations) at his "Tuesday Lectures." The photographs, most of which are quite alarming and sad, are accompanied by very detailed discussion of the patients, the process of photographing them, their disorders and how they could be induced, as well as an inside look at what a psychiatric hospital was like at the end of the 19th century. That old, vague diagnosis of "hysteria" really comes to life in this collection of photographs and stories. Beth Benoit Granite State College Plymouth State University New Hampshire ------------------------------------------------------------------- Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of the ... By Georges Didi-Huberm Book overview In this classic of French cultural studies, Georges Didi-Huberman traces the intimate and reciprocal relationship between the disciplines of psychiatry and photography in the late nineteenth century. Focusing on the immense photographic output of the Salpetriere hospital, the notorious Parisian asylum for insane and incurable women, Didi-Huberman shows the crucial role played by photography in the invention of the category of hysteria. Under the direction of the medical teacher and clinician Jean-Martin Charcot, the inmates of Salpetriere identified as hysterics were methodically photographed, providing skeptical colleagues with visual proof of hysteria's specific form. These images, many of which appear in this book, provided the materials for the multivolume album Iconographie photographique de la Salpetriere. As Didi-Huberman shows, these photographs were far from simply objective documentation. The subjects were required to portray their hysterical "type"—they performed their own hysteria. Bribed by the special status they enjoyed in the purgatory of experimentation and threatened with transfer back to the inferno of the incurables, the women patiently posed for the photographs and submitted to presentations of hysterical attacks before the crowds that gathered for Charcot's "Tuesday Lectures." Charcot did not stop at voyeuristic observation. Through techniques such as hypnosis, electroshock therapy, and genital manipulation, he instigated the hysterical symptoms in his patients, eventually giving rise to hatred and resistance on their part. Didi-Huberman follows this path from complicity to antipathy in one of Charcot's favorite "cases," that of Augustine, whose image crops up again and again in the Iconographie. Augustine's virtuosic performance of hysteria ultimately became one of self-sacrifice, seen in pictures of ecstasy, crucifixion, and silent cries. Limited preview - 2004 - 385 pages - Medical Preview this book --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
