Invention of Hysteria. Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of the Salpêtrière

2003

Medical WZ 100 CK76 2003

Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press

When in Paris in August 1880, Truby King attended (along with author Axel Munthe) one of Professor Jean-Martin Charcot’s famed ‘hysteria’ demonstrations at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital. Charcot was regarded as an authority on hysteria and hypnosis. To King the scene was unforgettable: a naked female patient was brought out with marks drawn all over her body. Charcot proceeded to stab her with a small dagger. Throughout the ordeal she remained motionless. Charcot photographed his patients (as shown here). Truby King also became a skilled photographer, using the relatively new medium as a tool to enhance patient records, especially while working at Seacliff Lunatic Asylum.