Medical Muses: Hysteria in Nineteenth-Century Paris

A fascinating study of three young female hysterics who shaped our early notions of psychology.

Blanche, Augustine, and Geneviève found themselves in the hysteria ward of the Salpetrière Hospital in 1870s Paris, where their care was directed by the prominent neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. They became medical celebrities: every week, eager crowds arrived at the hospital to observe their symptoms; they were photographed, sculpted, painted, and transformed into characters in novels. The remar...