Invention of hysteria: Charcot and the photographic iconography of the Salpêtrière

Abstract

"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 the 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."--Jacket.

Contents

I. Spectacular Evidence -- 1. Outbreaks -- 2. Clinical Knowledge -- 3. Legends of Photography -- 4. Thousand Forms, In None -- II. Charming Augustine -- 5. Auras -- 6. Attacks and Exposures -- 7. Repetitions, Rehearsals, Staging -- 8. Show-Stopper -- App. 1. "Living Pathological Museum" -- App. 2. Charcot's Clinical Lectures -- App. 4. Preface to the Photographic Journal of the Hospitals of Paris -- App. 5. Preface to the Iconographie photographique de la Salpetriere (vol. I) -- App. 6. Preface to the Iconographie photographique de la Salpetriere (vol. II) -- App. 7. Photographic Platform, Headrest, and Gallows -- App. 8. "Observation" and the Photograph at the Salpetriere -- App. 9. "Photographic Card" at the Salpetriere -- App. 10. Technique of Forensic Photography -- App. 11. Portrait's Veil, the Aura -- App. 12. "Auracular" Self-Portrait -- App. 13. Aura Hysterica (Augustine) -- App. 14. Explanation of the Synoptic Table of the Great Hysterical Attack -- App. 15. "Scintillating Scotoma" -- App. 16. Cure or Experimentation? -- App. 17. Gesture and Expression: Cerebral Automatism -- App. 18. Tableau Vivant of Cataleptics -- App. 19. Provoked Deliria: Augustine's Account -- App. 20. Theatrical Suggestion -- App. 21. Somnambular Writing -- App. 22. How Far Does Hypnotic Suggestion Go?