Invention of Hysteria:

Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of the Salp�tri�re

Mit Press, Oct 1, 2004 - Health & Fitness - 385 pages

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.

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PEP Web - Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic ...
Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of the Salp�tri�re by Georges Didi-Huberman, translated by Alisa Hartz Cambridge, ...
www.pep-web.org/ document.php?id=cjp.013.0135a

Invention of Hysteria - The MIT Press
The first English-language publication of a classic French book on the relationship between the development of photography and of the medical category of ...
mitpress.mit.edu/ catalog/ item/ default.asp?ttype=2& tid=10323

JAMA -- Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic ...
Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of the Salp�tri�re. by Georges Didi-Huberman, translated by Alisa Hartz, 367 pp, with illus, ...
jama.ama-assn.org/ cgi/ content/ full/ 290/ 15/ 2069

artforum: Probing Pictures: Carol Armstrong on Georges Didi ...
Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of the Salpetriere, by Georges Didi-Huberman, trans. Alisa Hartz. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ...
findarticles.com/ p/ articles/ mi_m0268/ is_1_42/ ai_108691748/ print

The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease - Fulltext: Volume 193(5 ...
ARTICLE LINKS: PDF (153 K) | View full-size inline images. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease:Volume 193(5)May 2005pp 354-355 ...
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Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic Iconography
now in paperback Invention of Hysteria Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of the Salpetriere Georges Didi-Huberman translated by Alisa Hartz "Th.
www.encyclopedia.com/ doc/ 1G1-128170180.html

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134. SOUTH CENTRAL REVIEW. Border Women is a significant contribution to us�Mexico border studies,. and to gender studies as well. ...
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Georges Didi-Huberman, Invention of Hysteria : Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of the Salp�tri�re, translated by Alisa Hartz. Cambridge, Mass. ...
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Network / Le R�seau - Summer/Fall 2004 Volume 7, Number 2/3
Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of the Salpetriere Georges Didi-Huberman (MIT Press, 2003). Considered a foundational text ...
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About the author (2004)

Georges Didi-Huberman teaches at the ?cole des hautes ?tudes en sciences sociales in Paris. He is a winner of the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art given by the College Art Association.

Bibliographic information

Title	Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of the Salp�tri�re
Author	Georges Didi Huberman
Edition	illustrated, reprint
Publisher	Mit Press, 2004
ISBN	0262541807, 9780262541800
Length	385 pages
Subjects	History › Europe › France Health & Fitness / General History / Europe / France Medical / Psychiatry / General Photography / General Photography / History Psychology / Emotions Psychology / General Psychology / History Psychology / Mental Illness Psychology / Neuropsychology Psychology / Psychopathology / General Social Science / Women's Studies

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