Twelfth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

The work of Jean-Martin Charcot was one of the first to physically document the symptomology of “hysteric distresses.” Charcot, most famous for his tenure at the Salpêtrière University Hospital in France, used the emerging technology of photography to categorize hysterical episodes. These photos were incredibly influential and circulated among physicians and analysts) as empirical evidence for this elusive female disease. More importantly, they created an aesthetic language which captured and defined the hysteric. Her movements, her moods, her pain would continue to affect how feminized bodies were and are perceived in and out of medicalized spaces. Using feminist theoretical frameworks from visual and film analysis in combination with sociological frameworks which understand the social construction of disease, this paper demonstrates how the power of an image, such as the hysteric, continues to affect the perception of subjects. The images popularized in this time period haunt the embodied experiences of mental and physical health of those whose bodies continued to be branded as unruly by a white hetero-patriarchal masculine gaze.