#jean martin charcot

[funeral]

Iconographie photographique de la Salpêtrière

[sensitivedead]

Iconographie Photographique de la Salpetriere pub.1878

[la-salpetriere]

I recently picked up a copy of Steve Parker’s “Medicine: A Definitive Illustrated History” which I found to be an excellent read. It touched on medical practices from the earliest days to present medical advances. For those whom it interests, there is a section on the work of Jean-Martin Charcot. While it isn’t quite as nuanced as some books focusing solely on his work, it remains a great reference for an overview of his scientific achievement. Of course he will stay a controversial figure (for good reason) it is important not to forget the bridge he made between mental illness and true science, letting those ridden with mental afflictions to be as one who is sick.

[bargainsleuthbooks]

#ARCReview #TheMadwomenofParis by #JenniferCodyEpstein #NewBooks #July2023Books #NetGalley #HistoricalFiction #BallantineBooks

“I didn’t see her the day she came to the asylum..." An upcoming #historicalfiction book, #Themadwomenofparis, explores the life of women at #Salpetriere asylum in #France in the #19thcentury #jennifercodyepstein #July2023books #Netgalley #ballantinebooks

“I didn’t see her the day she came to the asylum. Looking back, this sometimes strikes me as unlikely. Impossible, even, given how utterly her arrival would upend the already chaotic order of things at the Salpêtrière—not to mention change the course of my own life there.” When Josephine arrives at the Salpêtrière she is covered in blood and badly bruised. Suffering from near-complete amnesia,…

[mindotaur]

I think, when we're talking about plural representation, it's important to look at the original context of the story being told.

Split: came out in the age of the internet, Dissociative Identity Disorder had already been renamed, the crew refused help from various systems who offered to consult for them. There was plenty of information on the internet about how "evil alters" are bad for the community and perpetuate harmful stereotypes.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Stevenson wanted to portray a contrast between what is expected from a man under religious and social repression versus a man with no regard for consequence who acts on his darkest impulses. The book was published in 1886, before Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot "discovered" what would then be called Hystero-Epilepsy. There was no plural pride movement, no public network where he could research it, and it's likely he simply wanted to represent how even the most presentable of men could secretly be a monster.

Now, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is The Originator of the evil alter trope, but I feel that if we treat it that way when divorced from its original context we do a disservice to the text and to its author.

[teresawilson1]

The Uncanny in Art

Giving Fear A Face: The Anxious Mind

A Personal Overview of the Theories around the Concept of the Uncanny in Art

                Paula Rego, Little Brides with Their Mother, 2009-10

The Uncanny is a type of anxiety, experienced by the viewer and triggered by the artist’s personal experience.

Elena Crippa

It may seem to be a paradox that the type of art that can be labelled ‘Uncanny’ and appears to be unreal, bizarre, incomplete, grotesque or in an 'in-between state', nevertheless conjures up feelings in the viewer that seem very 'real'.   As Francis Bacon (1909 – 1992) described, during an interview with the art critic David Sylvester in 1950, reality, to him, was nothing else but a ‘series of sensations and ideas that occur in the consciousness of each individual’. (Crippa, p83)

Paula Rego (1935-2022) was another artist who had lived through the period of post-World War II Europe marked by the anxiety that followed the war - concentration camps, suffocating dictator regimes and threat of nuclear war (Crippa).  She also produced paintings which have the uncanny elements that she has described as being an attempt to ‘give fear a face’ (Warner).  Marina Warner has written that Rego ‘expresses her own ambiguous states of uncertainties, mysteries and doubts into that territory, desisting from offering explanations or asking for any’.

Rego and Bacon are two examples of important 20th century artists whose work incorporated elements of the concept of the uncanny, a thread which works its way in and out of the work of figurative and non-figurative art.  I will go on to discuss many others in further posts, including my own practice and show how the uncanny reveals itself - its strange identity.  I will focus on the idea of the uncanny as it is revealed in the subject (and object) of the human body. 

But first, the question could be asked - how can this elusive concept of the uncanny be defined? Did it emerge only in the 1920’s in Europe, or has it always existed in the world?

It is nowadays the norm to hold the view that anxiety, fear, and concepts such as the uncanny (which express anxiety in a visual form) are experiences that occur to human beings in the site of the psyche (the mind).  However, it was not until the late 19th century that Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) came to believe that the symptoms of his patients were caused by conflict in the unconscious mind and with the ‘failure to deal with invisible, unconscious and primarily sexual psychological desires’ and not as had been thought previously, symptoms of a disease of the physical nervous system. (Freeman, p15)

Freud had come to Paris in 1885 to study ‘hysterics’ under Jean-Martin Charcot and became interested in the connection between the mind and body (Tomley,pviii).  It is largely a legacy of Freud’s work that anxiety has become so important in today’s psychological and psychiatric thinking (Freeman, p4).  Freud continues to be relevant today as more and more of his insights become proved by neuroscientific discoveries.  For example, as Eric Kandel has pointed out in ‘The Age of Insight’ (2012), ‘most of our mental life, including most of our emotional life, is unconscious at any given moment’.  Research also suggests that ‘images exert a much more powerful influence on emotions than do thoughts (Freeman, p27), which explains the power and effect on the viewer of uncanny art.

It is important to remember that although the uncanny did not exist as a theory until being written about by Freud in his essay ‘das Unheimlich’ in 1919, uncanny-like images had appeared in art through the centuries in both European and non-European cultures.  Connected with the supernatural, magic and religion it shows up in ‘primitive art’ for instance and through the history of the art of Catholicism.   Jane Neal, writing in ‘Uncanny Tales’, says that Freud tells us that ‘apparent death and re-animation of the dead have been represented as most uncanny themes.  She talks about the otherworldliness od Ana Maria Pacheco’s work which comes from the primitive ‘magic’ cultures of Brazil as well as the ritual and superstition running through the Catholicism that she experienced growing up.  The doll is the perfect example of an uncanny art form, connected as it is with ideas of witchcraft, religious statuary, and as an imaginative plaything/doll.

Thus, the uncanny has always been with us, just as dreams, imagination and fears have been expressed by humans in art.  In her essay ‘Dream Realism’, Marina Warner (Warner,p31) describes Paula Rego’s approach to art making as a ‘beautiful grotesque’ because she reflects the powerful mixed feelings she inspires, looking within herself as a site of ‘collective memory nourished by legends and fairy tales’.  

The Jungian feminist psychologist and ‘teller of the old stories’ Clarissa Pinkola Estes wrote in ‘Women Who run With the Wolves’ that in ‘…a single human being there are many other beings, all with their own value, motives, and desires…there is also within the psyche an innate contra naturam aspect, an ‘against nature’ force.  The contra naturam aspect opposes the positive: it is against development, against harmony…it is a derisive and murderous antagonist that is born within us.’ (Estes,p35,).  The first chapter of Este’s seminal work is devoted to recognizing this predator in the psyche for what it is, and from recognition comes the instinctive building of intuitive ‘muscle’ so that we learn to instinctively know when something ‘is not right’.  The uncanny lives in the realm of ‘not quite right’ and although its presence may leave the viewer with a sense of unease, it is a clue to a truth revealed or danger thwarted, a mirror reflecting something we may not want to look at too closely, but we must examine and take on board, or we cannot move on in our lives.

Alexandra Kokoli explores the nature of repression in the realm of domesticity in her book ‘The Feminist Uncanny: In Theory and Art Practice’ (2016).  She explains that the starting point for the ‘female uncanny’ is the ‘…deliberate unsettling quality that many cultural artefacts informed by feminism continue to possess…the fraught but fertile relationship between feminism and the uncanny and by extension Freudian psychoanalysis’ (Kokoli,p3).

Louise Bourgeois, Femme Maison, 1982, Plastic doll and clay.

Repression and entrapment in the unhomely domestic environment (‘unhomely’ are a literal translation of Freud’s das Unheimlich) is explored by Louise Bourgeois’ uncanny hybrids of women and house in her series of works entitled ‘Femme Maison’.  Her later ‘cells’ are also prison-like structures, within which the viewer is invited to look inside an uncanny alternative domestic room filled with fetishized and emotionally charged collections of objects, doors, and symbols of ‘hysteria’.

As a final note on this overview of the theories surrounding the uncanny, I would like to mention the concept of the ‘Abject’.  Connected to both the uncanny and feminism, the theory of ‘abjection’ has been defined by Julia Kristeva in ‘Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection’ (1982) as ‘… a massive and sudden emergence of uncanniness which familiar as it might have been, in an opaque and forgotten life, now harries me as radically separate, loathsome’ (Kristeva, p51).  This then, is the uncanny taken to an extreme of the visceral, violent, or disgusting.  The repressed memory, the uncanny starting point, can no longer be recognized in the abject.  It is closer to the grotesque and is indebted to Surrealism (Kokoli, p53).  At the heart of abjection is the in-between, the ambiguous, immoral, a sinister experiment gone wrong.

            In the dark halls of the museum that is now what remains of Auschwitz, I see a heap of children’s shoes, or something like that, something I have already seen elsewhere, under a Christmas tree, for instance, dolls I believe.  The abjection of Nazi crime reaches its apex when death, which in any case, kills me, interferes with what, in my living universe, is supposed to save me from death: childhood, science, among other things.

Julia Kristeva Powers of Horror, (1982)

References

Crippa, E. ed., (2018). All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life, exh.cat., Text by Elena Crippa. Tate, London.

Estés, C.P. Women who Run With the Wolves: contacting the Power of the Wild Woman. Rider, London. (1992)

Freeman, D and Freeman, J. Anxiety: A Very short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2012.

Kokoli, A.M. The feminist Uncanny in Theory and Art Practice. Bloomsbury, 2016.

Kristeva, J. Powers of Horror: an Essay on Abjection. Trans. By Leon. S. Roudiez. Colombia University Press. NY. 1982.

Neal, J. (Essay) in Uncanny Tales. Exhibition Catalogue. FWA, Foundation of Women Artists. 2005

Tomley, S. (Introduction) to the Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud. The Psychology Classic. Capstone. 2020

Warner, M. (Essay) Dream Realism, in Paula Rego, Exhibition Catalogue. Ed. By Elena Crippa. Tate. 2005.

[hazalusi]

HISTRIONIC PERSONALITY DISORDER

Hysteria or histrionic personality disorder, which holds a fundamental place in the fields of psychiatry and clinical psychology, is a condition within the neurotic disorder group. Research on this disorder was initially conducted by researchers such as Jean Martin CHARCOT, Pierre JANET, Josef BREUER, and Sigmund FREUD. Hysteria has contributed to the birth of psychoanalysis.

According to the Freudian perspective, hysteria or histrionic personality disorder is the expression of suppressed feelings, often related to sexuality, residing in the individual's subconscious. The view that negligent parental attitudes in the parent-child relationship are one of the contributing factors to the emergence of hysteria is widely accepted.

The diagnosis of HISTRIONIC PERSONALITY DISORDER indicates a pattern of excessive emotionality and a craving for attention. These individuals feel discomfort when they are not the center of attention. They believe that relationships should be closer than they actually are. Emotional displays, seductiveness, verbal exaggeration, susceptibility to suggestion, manipulative suicide attempts, and inconsistency stand out. The low functionality in directing the actions of a histrionic individual is followed as a reflection of the mental turmoil they experience. The general characteristics of histrionics include self-centeredness, a habit of exaggerating everything, a desire to attract attention, superficiality in interpersonal relationships, and a desire to escape from the existing order through inconsistent emotional states. Additionally, histrionics being seductive and flirtatious, attempting suicide, and being able to be cheerful in the mornings but melancholic in the evenings are established behavioral patterns in those experiencing this disorder.

Generally, the prevalence in society is around 2-3%.

**TREATMENT**

First and foremost, patients exhibiting HISTRIONIC PERSONALITY DISORDER are generally not motivated for treatment. They consider their own emotional, cognitive, and behavioral patterns to be normal. They propose changes in external conditions rather than themselves as a solution. According to them, they remain the same, and only the environment changes.

Histrionic Personality Disorder, which is a personality disorder, is usually treated by a psychiatrist and psychologist, with a particular emphasis on psychotherapeutic methods. Group therapy and family therapy are generally not recommended as the first choice for the treatment of histrionic personality disorder. Individuals with this disorder usually do not want environments where they are not the center of attention, leading to a misconception in treatment. In cases where HISTRIONIC PERSONALITY DISORDER patients experience severe symptoms, medications recommended by the relevant psychiatrist can be beneficial.

[fabiansteinhauer]

zum 13.6.

"Niemand hat die[...] Zeitlichkeit der Kunst so eindrücklich zur Darstellung gebracht wie Georges Didi-Huberman. "Der Anachronismus", schrieb er 1990 in seiner Studie "Vor einem Bild", "ist in der Geschichte nicht etwas, dessen man sich unbedingt zu entledigen hätte, sondern mit dem man sich auseinanderzusetzen hat." Für das Verständnis der Florentiner Fresken Fra Angelicos bedeutete das beispielsweise, nicht nur ihre historische Symbolik zu entschlüsseln, sondern auch jenen Teilen des Bildes Beachtung zu schenken, die im Raster des gesicherten Wissens bedeutungslos erscheinen mussten - ein Stück weißer Wand, eine Zone ungegenständlicher Malerei. Diese Überlegungen führten Didi-Huberman zu den Arbeiten AbyWarburgs, in denen er ein ähnliches Interesse für die nichtlinearen Übertragungswege der Kunst fand. Warburgs "Theorie des Formengedächtnisses", so Didi-Huberman, vollzieht ein Denken in "Sprüngen und Latenzen, überlebenden und anachronistischen Formen". [...]

Dazu gehörte die Einsicht, dass ein am Ideal des Meisterwerks geschulter Kunstbegriff wesentliche Teile der historischen Bildproduktion nicht zu fassen vermochte. Eine Pionierarbeit war daher 1982 die Studie zu den fotografischen Inszenierungen der Hysterie in Jean-Martin Charcots Pariser Nervenheilanstalt Salpêtrière, die zeigte, wie eng auch das vermeintlich objektive Wissen der Naturwissenschaften an das Wirken der Einbildungskraft gebunden war. Die Ausstellung "L'empreinte" im Centre Pompidou brachte die Kunst des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts mit der uralten Technik des Abdrucks zusammen, wie man sie von Siegeln, Reliquien und Totenmasken kannte. Auch hier tauchte das "dialektische Bild" wieder auf: Der durch Berührung entstandene Abdruck ist Zeugnis einer Existenz, erkennbar ist er aber erst, wenn diese Existenz vergangen ist. In einem Punkt jedoch wich Didi-Huberman von den Prämissen der bildwissenschaftlichen Diskussionen ab: An dem überflüssigen Paragone zwischen Bild und Wort, der das eine Medium gegen das andere ausspielen wollte, hat er sich nicht beteiligt. Denn in seiner Arbeit ist die Sprache seit jeher integraler Teil des Denkens, statt bloß Beiwerk und stilistische Ausschmückung zu sein. Eine andere Art des Wissens Als Didi-Huberman 2015 in Berlin den Internationalen Forschungspreis der Max Weber Stiftung erhielt, überraschte er das Publikum mit einer sehr pers��nlichen Danksagung. Darin kam die Rede auf seine Mutter, Estelle Huberman, die Anfang der Vierzigerjahre neben Versen von Baudelaire und Verlaine auch Gedichte von Goethe, Novalis und Hölderlin in ihr Notizbuch geschrieben hatte - in dem von ihr geliebten Deutsch, das später zur Sprache der Henker wurde, die einen Teil ihrer Familie auslöschten.

Mit der Schoa hat Didi-Huberman sich in seinem Buch "Bilder trotz allem" auf seine Weise auseinandergesetzt. Das Buch handelt von jenen vier Fotografien, die eine Gruppe jüdischer Häftlinge im Sommer 1944 unter Lebensgefahr in Birkenau aufgenommen hat. Der These von der Undarstellbarkeit der Schoa hielt er die Existenz dieser Fotos entgegen: Auch wenn sie das historische Geschehen unmöglich angemessen repräsentieren konnten, so waren sie doch wertvolle Überreste, "Fetzen des Nachlebens". Das Buch war aber auch eine Einladung an Historiker, in Bildern mehr zu sehen als Informationsquellen, nämlich Zugänge zu einer anderen Art des Wissens. Die Unschärfe der Fotos erscheint dann nicht länger als Defizit und Mangel an sachdienlicher Information, sondern als Ausdruck existenzieller Dringlichkeit, als Akt des Widerstands und Botschaft an eine zivilisierte Außenwelt. Georges Didi-Huberman hat sich einmal als "freies Elektron" beschrieben und damit auf seine Umlaufbahn außerhalb der Machtzentren des akademischen Betriebs angespielt. Seine Leser müssen ihm für diese Konzentration auf das Geschäft des Schreibens danken. Ein "freies Elektron" ist kein Forschungsmanager, kein Trendsetter und kein Drittmittelakrobat, sondern Autor und Denker - im Fall von Georges Didi-Huberman: Kunsthistoriker und Philosoph, Schriftsteller und Wissenschaftler, Bote zwischen Wissen und Einbildungskraft. Geschichte wiederholt sich nicht. Aber manchmal erzeugt sie schöne Konstellationen. Heute feiert Georges Didi-Huberman seinen siebzigsten Geburtstag, am gleichen Tag, an dem 1866 AbyWarburg geboren wurde."

Peter Geimar

[funeral]

Iconographie photographique de la Salpêtrière

[nursingwriter]

Hypnosis in Memory Retrieval In recent years there has been a myriad of books and articles written concerning the use of hypnosis and memory retrieval. Aside from the clinical application of hypnosis in treating a variety of psychiatric disorders, hypnosis has received much news coverage concerning its use in awakening early memories of sexual abuse, and even past life therapy. Moreover, there are numerous books and CDs available teaching self-hypnosis as a means memory improvement and recall as well as a method of self-help or self-therapy. Hypnosis, today, is used in a variety of therapy and research, including criminal investigations. Hypnosis is viewed as viable research and therapy tool. Hypnosis is said to be a social interaction "in which one person, the subject, responds to suggestions given by another person, the hypnotist, for imaginative experiences involving alterations in perception, memory, and the voluntary control of action" (Memory pg). The responses are generally associated with a "degree of subjective conviction bordering on delusion, and an experience of involuntariness bordering on compulsion" (Memory pg). "The use of hypnosis for trauma-related distress has been around since the days of Freud" (Rowe pg). The history of hypnosis reaches back to the ancient temples of Aesculapius, the Greek god of medicine. While patients slept, the priest would utter advice and reassurances to them, causing them to believe the gods had spoken to them in their dreams (Memory pg). In the 1700's, Franz Anton Mesmer theorized that disease was caused by imbalances of a physical force, called animal magnetism, affecting various parts of the body" (Memory pg). Mesmer believed that by redistributing this magnetic fluid, cures could be achieved. This procedure usually resulted in "pseudoepileptic seizures known as 'crises'" (Memory pg). In 1784, Benjamin Franklin chaired a French royal commission concluding that the "effects of mesmerism, while genuine in many cases, were achieved by means of imagination and not any physical force" (Memory pg). Franklin's proceedings might well be the "first controlled psychological experiments" (Memory pg). Despite the fact that Mesmer's theory was discredited, his practices did not die. One of his followers, the Marquis de Puysegur, magnetised a young shepherd boy named Victor Race, leading to a major transition regarding Mesmer's theory (Memory pg). Rather than a magnetic crisis, "Victor fell into a somnambulistic state in which he was responsive to instruction, and from which he awoke with an amnesia for what he had done" (Memory pg). By the 19th century, John Elliotson, James Esdaile, and others were successfully using mesmeric somnambulism as an anesthetic for surgery (Memory pg). James Braid, another British physician, speculated that somnambulism was caused by the paralysis of nerve centers induced by ocular fixation, in order to eliminate the taint of mesmerism, he renamed the state neurhypnotism" (nervous sleep), a term later shortened to hypnosis. Later, Braid concluded that hypnosis was due to the subject's concentration on a single thought monoideism) rather than physiological fatigue" (Memory pg). Jean Martin Charcot, the late 1880's, believed that hypnosis was a related form of hysteria, a central nervous system disorder. A.A. Liebeault and Hippolyte opposed his view, emphasizing the "role of suggestibility in producing hypnotic effects" (Memory pg). Sigmund Freud also studied Charcot, and began to develop his "psycholgenic theories of mental illness after observing the suggestibility of hysterical patients when they were hypnotized" (Memory pg). During the early 1900's several researchers in the United States began conducting their own studies of hypnosis. Interest in hypnosis rose greatly after World War II, and gave rise to organizations such as the "Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, affiliates of the International Society of Hypnosis, as well as journals such as The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis," to name a few (Memory pg). Hypnotizability is measured by standardized psychological tests such as the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale or the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility. These instruments are work-samples, analogous to other performance tests. They begin with a hypnotic induction in which the subjects are asked to focus their eyes on a fixation point, relax, and concentrate on the voice of the hypnotist (although suggestions for relaxation are generally part of the hypnotic induction procedure, people can respond positively to hypnotic suggestions while engaged in vigorous physical activity). The hypnotist then gives suggestions for further relaxation, focused attention, and eye closure. After the subjects close their eyes, they receive further suggestions for various imaginative experiences. For example, they may be told to extend their arms and imagine a heavy object pushing their hand and arm down; or that a voice is asking them questions over a loudspeaker; or that when they open their eyes they will not be able to see an object placed in front of them. Posthypnotic suggestions may also be given for responses to be executed after hypnosis has been terminated, including posthypnotic amnesia, the inability to remember events and experiences which transpired during hypnosis. Response to each of these suggestions is scored in terms of objective behavioral criteria -- do the subjects' arms drop a specified distance over a period of time, do they answer questions realistically, do they deny seeing the object, etc." (Memory pg)? Therapists frequently use hypnosis to help patients recall forgotten incidents, such as child sexual abuse. There are numerous reports regarding the success of this technique, however, many of the reports are "anecdotal in nature and fail to obtain independent corroboration of the memories which emerge" (Memory pg). Due to the fact that hypnotic hypermnesia tends to be unreliable, the "risk of increased responsiveness to leading questions and other sources of bias and distortion, such clinical practices are not recommended" (Memory pg). The same is similar for forensic situations. The introduction of memories recovered through hypnosis are generally severely limited in many legal jurisdictions. For those wanting to using hypnosis for forensic purposes, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has published a set of guidelines, "despite the lack of evidence supporting the practice" (Memory pg). Most psychologists and psychiatrists believe memories of trauma can be put "out of reach of consciousness and alter retrieved, however most now avoid using the Freudian term 'repression,' in favor of more descriptive terms such as 'amnesia and delayed recall' (Horn 52-63). Still others refer to dissociation, "which describes the mind's protective detachment from a traumatic experience as it is happening, effectively fragmenting consciousness" (Horn 52-63). Studies of dissociative disorders "maintain that memories of traumatic events formed while a person is in the altered state of mind induced by terror are frequently inaccessible to ordinary consciousness" (Horn 52-63). However, experts say that dissociated memories remain indelible and can be triggered decades later by events or sensations (Horn 52-63). The physiology of memory loss and retrieval is only beginning to be understood. Scientists believe that memories are stored as electrical patterns in neurons deep in the brain's hippocampal region...Over time, these patterns are translated into new neural circuitry in different brain area, creating a permanent record of the events. I ntensely traumatic events, says Yale University psychiatry Prof. Michael Davis, 'produce unusually strong nerve connections that serve as long-lasting memories.' Years later, the right stimulus can set those nerve circuits firing and trigger the fear, with no immediate understanding of its source" (Horn 52-63). Although, may scientists believe that memories can be lost and then recovered years later, there is a growing number who do not. Sociologist Richard Ofshe of the University of California at Berkeley says that after sixty years of experiments, there is yet any empirical evidence to prove that repression exists (Horn 52-63). Ofshe believes that people forget things, intentionally avoid painful subjects, and may actually have selective traumatic amnesia, "if the terror of an experience is so great that the normal biological process underlying information storage is disrupted - as in an alcohol - induced blackout...But no one has ever shown that the memory of repeated abuses can be uncontrollably and completely stripped from a person's consciousness" (Horn 52-63). Prof. Paul McHugh of Johns Hopkins University says that quite the contrary, most children are more likely to remember severe traumas rather than block them out. Elizabeth Loftus, a memory researcher at the University of Washington says, What's being claimed is that traumatic memory is driven into a corner of the unconscious where it sits like Rip van Winkle and doesn't age and wakes up 20 years later" (Horn 52-63). Memory, Loftus says "is not a computer or videotape recording. We don't just pop in a tape or call it up in perfect condition. Memory is not objective fact but subjective, suggestible and malleable" (Horn 52-63). Loftus has conducted research in which she has implanted false memories of unhappy childhood incidents in adults by simply having an authoritative older sibling recount the event (Horn 52-63). Skeptics say the possibility of retrieving memories is all the more unlikely due to the use of such methods of 'memory retrieval' "as age regression, hypnoisis and injections of sodium amytal, all of which are know to promote confabulation of extraordinarily vivid memories and to cement in the patient's mind the certainty of their truth" (Horn 52-63). The American Medical Association has more than once warned against the use of such techniques (Horn 52-63). It is suggested that before humans could have history, they had to have been able to remember their personal past. This is believed to be the fundamental difference between animal and human memory. "The case for a memory that is distinctly and uniquely human therefore depends on the proposition that there is more than one kind of memory, at least one of which is possessed only by humans" (Suddendorf 133). The idea that there is at least a dual memory system arose from work on amnesia. The famous subject H.M. has dense amnesia for events and knowledge dating from his temporal lobe surgery in 1953, and indeed for memories dating some years prior to that, yet his behavior can still be influenced by past events without his being aware of it (see Ogden & Corkin, 1991, for a recent review). His amnesia seems to apply only to so-called explicit memories, or what Squire 1992) alternatively described as declarative memories; these represent memories that can be brought into conscious awareness. Memories that seem to be unaffected in amnesia are those that we are not aware of, and include those implied by such phenomena as learned motor and cognitive skills, classical and operant conditioning, priming, habituation, and sensitization. Such memories have been called implicit or nondeclarative memories (Suddendorf 133). There are many self-hypnosis books and CDs on the market today for those who want to explore hypnosis on their own. Brain M. Alman in his book, "Self-Hypnosis: The Complete Manual for Health and Self-Change" writes that hypnosis is not magic, but merely a natural state of mind that one can use to instruct and direct the unconscious mind and body. Alman claims that self-hypnosis can be used to "reduce stress, control pain, conquer fears, overcome allergies and alter unwanted habits" (Alman 5). Andre Weitzenhoffer writes in "Clinical Hypnosis and Self-Regulation: Cognitive-Behavioral Perspectives" that even after more than 200 years after its beginnings, the world is still faced with the "rather remarkable and depressing fact that hypnosis, its most central concept, remains a mystery" (Clinical 21). And on a lighter note, Steven Heller writes, "I firmly believe that hypnosis is just a state - South of Oregon and North of Washington, and it doesn't really exist except in people's minds" (Heller 21). Although, most scientific data suggests that it is unlikely responsible for perfect recall, there are still many who believe that it is an affective tool for psychotherapy and as well as general therapy for pain and stress, etc. There are those who believe that hypnosis can help one stop smoking, lose weight, overcome phobias, as well as recall childhood traumas. Hypnosis is certainly going to continue to be an on-going issue of study and research for decades to come. Works Cited Alman, Brain M.; Lambrou, Peter T. Self-Hypnosis: The Complete Manual for Health and Self-Change. Brunner-Mazel Trade. November 1991; pp 5. Clinical Hypnosis and Self-Regulation: Cognitive-Behavioral Perspectives (Dissociation, Trauma, Memory, and Hypnosis Book Series). American Psychological Association. January 15, 1999; pp 21. Heller, Steven. Monsters and Magical Sticks or There's No Such Thing As Hypnosis New Falcon Publications. December 1, 1994; pp 21. Horn, Miriam. "Memories lost and found." U.S. News & World Report. November 29 1993; pp 52-63. Memory: Hypnosis and the Psychological Unconscious." http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~psy001/jk/psych1mem5.html.(accessed 12-05-2002). Rowe, Donald. "Theoretical and Clinical Issues in Hypnosis: Dissociation and Executive Function." July 1998. http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~drowe/research/theoretical/hypnosis.html.(accessed 12-15-2002). Suddendorf, Thomas; Corballis, Michael C. "Mental time travel and the evolution of the human mind." Genetic, Social & General Psychology Monographs. Volume 123. May 01, 1997; pp 133. Read the full article

[la-salpetriere]

Jean-Martin Charcot and his pet monkey, Rosalie

[plaques-memoire]

Plaque en hommage à : Sigmund Freud

Type : Lieu de résidence

Adresse : 10 rue Le Goff, 75005 Paris, France

Date de pose : Inconnue

Texte : Sigmund Freud, créateur de la psychanalyse, habita cette maison, 1885-1886

Quelques précisions : Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) est un neurologue autrichien, considéré comme le fondateur de la psychanalyse. Étudiant la médecine à l'Université de Vienne, il s'y spécialise en neurologie et devient l’élève de Jean-Martin Charcot, dont il retient principalement les travaux sur l’hystérie et l’hypnose. De retour à Vienne, il collabore avec Josef Breuer pour publier en 1895 leurs Études sur l’hystérie, posant les bases de la psychanalyse. Il abandonne rapidement l’hypnose pour développer la libre association, où le patient exprime ses pensées sans censure. En 1900, il publie L’Interprétation du rêve, où il expose sa théorie selon laquelle les rêves sont l’expression du désir inconscient. Il élabore aussi la théorie du complexe d’Œdipe, selon laquelle l’enfant ressent une attirance inconsciente pour le parent du sexe opposé. Il attire de nombreux disciples, dont Carl Gustav Jung et Aldred Adler, mais des divergences apparaissent dans la façon de considérer la sexualité et le désir. Il propose plusieurs structurations du psychisme, dont celle basée sur le ça, le moi et le surmoi. Contraint à l’exil après l’annexion de l’Autriche par l’Allemagne nazie, il s’installe à Londres. Il meurt par euthanasie après avoir longuement souffert d'un cancer de la mâchoire. Ses théories, bien que controversées, ont influencé la philosophie, la littérature et le féminisme, tout en étant critiquées pour leur manque de rigueur scientifique. Une autre plaque commémorative en son honneur peut être trouvée non loin rue Royer-Collard, où il résida également à la même période.

[memoriesfrombooks]

Inspired by the history of La Salpetriere hospital for “hysterics”, The Madwomen of Paris presents a fictional account of the days of this asylum under Jean-Martin Charcot. It presents the story, of scientific discovery, but, even more so, of women used and abandoned for the purposes of others, and of a dream of escape. I find the premise of the book - the history and the science - fascinating. However, the telling of story unfortunately does not work for me. 

Reviewed for NetGalley.

[atessusa]

The Charcot Shower: A Revolutionary Therapy for Neurological Health

A Charcot shower is a specialized hydrotherapy treatment designed to enhance circulation, improve muscle tone, and aid in the rehabilitation of individuals with neurological conditions. Named after Jean-Martin Charcot, a French neurologist, this therapy involves alternating hot and cold water sprays that target specific areas of the body to stimulate the nervous system. Visit > https://tinyurl.com/yc36h5mx

[prendresoindemoi]

Le Lien Historique entre l'Hypnose de Spectacle et l'Hypnose Médicale

Dans le domaine de l'hypnose, deux facettes se dessinent : l'hypnose de spectacle et l'hypnose médicale. Bien que ces pratiques puissent sembler opposées, leur histoire est profondément interconnectée. À travers ce billet, nous allons explorer les origines, les évolutions et les interactions entre ces deux formes d'hypnose.

Les Origines de l'Hypnose

L'hypnose trouve ses racines dans des pratiques anciennes, notamment dans l'Égypte antique, où l'on utilisait des rituels et des techniques de transe pour soigner des maladies. Ces pratiques ont évolué au fil des siècles, et au XVIIIe siècle, le médecin allemand Franz Anton Mesmer a popularisé le concept de « magnétisme animal », croyant que les maladies pouvaient être guéries par l'influence d'un fluide magnétique.

Mesmer a mis en place des séances où les patients étaient placés dans un état de transe collective, ce qui a ouvert la voie à l'hypnose de spectacle. Cependant, ses méthodes ont été critiquées, et une commission royale, comprenant Benjamin Franklin, a conclu que les effets observés étaient dus à la suggestion plutôt qu'à un fluide magnétique.

La Transition vers l'Hypnose de Spectacle

Au fil du temps, l'hypnose de spectacle a commencé à se développer, avec des praticiens tels que James Braid, qui a inventé le terme « hypnose » en 1843. Il a démontré que l'hypnose pouvait être induite par la fixation de l'attention sur un objet. Les spectacles d'hypnose sont devenus populaires au XIXe siècle, mêlant magie et hypnose.

Des magiciens comme Donato et d'autres ont utilisé des techniques hypnotiques dans leurs performances, attirant l'attention du public et suscitant l'intérêt pour l'hypnose. Cependant, l'hypnose de spectacle a souvent été perçue comme une forme de divertissement, parfois au détriment de sa reconnaissance médicale.

L'Hypnose Médicale et ses Pionniers

Parallèlement à l'hypnose de spectacle, des médecins ont commencé à explorer l'hypnose comme outil thérapeutique. Des figures comme John Elliotson et James Esdaile ont utilisé l'hypnose pour traiter des patients souffrant de douleurs chroniques et de maladies diverses. Ces pionniers ont démontré que l'hypnose pouvait avoir des applications médicales significatives.

À l'Institut de la Salpêtrière à Paris, Jean-Martin Charcot a étudié l'hystérie et l'hypnose, tandis que Sigmund Freud, influencé par ces travaux, a exploré l'inconscient à travers l'hypnose. Cependant, avec l'émergence de la psychanalyse, l'hypnose a perdu du terrain dans le domaine médical, même si certaines pratiques ont persisté.

Les Interactions entre les Deux Pratiques

Malgré leur séparation apparente, l'hypnose de spectacle et l'hypnose médicale ont toujours interagi. Les techniques utilisées par les hypnotiseurs de scène, telles que la suggestion et la transe, sont également fondamentales en hypnose thérapeutique. Des praticiens modernes reconnaissent l'importance d'intégrer les connaissances issues de l'hypnose de spectacle dans leurs pratiques médicales.

Des événements récents ont mis en lumière cette synergie, avec des hypnotiseurs de spectacle partageant leurs techniques avec des professionnels de la santé. Cela a permis de redéfinir l'hypnose comme un outil polyvalent, capable d'être utilisé à la fois pour le divertissement et la guérison.

Les Défis Contemporains

Malgré les avancées, des défis subsistent. L'hypnose est souvent mal comprise, tant dans le grand public que parmi les professionnels de la santé. La stigmatisation liée à l'hypnose de spectacle peut influencer la perception de son utilisation médicale. Les praticiens doivent travailler à éduquer le public sur les bénéfices de l'hypnose, tout en maintenant des normes éthiques stricte.

De plus, avec la montée en popularité de l'hypnose, il y a un besoin croissant de formation et de certification appropriées pour les praticiens. Cela garantit que les techniques sont utilisées de manière sûre et efficace, que ce soit sur scène ou dans un cadre thérapeutique.

En somme, l'hypnose de spectacle et l'hypnose médicale partagent une histoire riche et complexe. Alors que les deux pratiques continuent d'évoluer, il est essentiel de reconnaître leur interconnexion. L'hypnose, qu'elle soit utilisée pour divertir ou guérir, reste un domaine fascinant, rempli de potentiel pour améliorer la vie des gens.

Source Youtube : Conférence du Dr Lemaire : Lien historique entre l'hypnose de spectacle & médicale