Jean-Martin Charcot and the epilepsy/hysteria relationship

Research from many perspectives has been made on the work of the French neurologist, J.-M. Charcot (1825-1893) with particular reference to his fame for his studies and "construction" of hysteria. What has not been demonstrated so far is the extent to which Charcot's construction can be explained by the perceived relationship between hysteria and epilepsy and Charcot's access to epileptic patients at La Salpêtrière. From the confusion that reigned concerning hysteria and epilepsy, both separately and in relation to each other, Charcot claimed to have isolated hysteria as a distinctive and universal pathology. This claim was partly based on the "grande attaque", representing the most intense degree of hysteria. A comparison with Gowers, the contemporary English neurologist suggests that diagnosis was the function of the practitioners' preferences; and a linguistic analysis pinpoints Charcot's problems in describing an isolated pathology in terms of its relation to its neighbour, epilepsy.     

Making distinctions: the contribution of Hector Landouzy to differential diagnosis in relation to hysteria and epilepsy

Hector Landouzy (1818-1864) is known for his Traité Complet de l'Hystérie (1846), which was crowned by the Académie de Médecine, but this work is not given much importance in historical accounts. It deserves more attention because it was more than an orthodox statement about the nature of hysteria. In the context of the diagnostic confusion between epilepsy and hysteria, it introduced a method of presenting criteria to facilitate diagnosis. An examination of French authors on epilepsy and hysteria in the second half of the nineteenth century suggests that this method probably set the example which was to be followed by later clinicians, including Charcot at the Salpêtrière.     

Neurology and Literature, 1860–1920 by Anne Stiles (ed.)

Abstract

Research from many perspectives has been made on the work of the French neurologist, J.‐M. Charcot (1825–1893) with particular reference to his fame for his studies and “construction”; of hysteria. What has not been demonstrated so far is the extent to which Charcot's construction can be explained by the perceived relationship between hysteria and epilepsy and Charcot's access to epileptic patients at La Salpêtrière. From the confusion that reigned concerning hysteria and epilepsy, both separately and in relation to each other, Charcot claimed to have isolated hysteria as a distinctive and universal pathology. This claim was partly based on the “grande attaque”;, representing the most intense degree of hysteria. A comparison with Gowers, the contemporary English neurologist suggests that diagnosis was the function of the practitioners’ preferences; and a linguistic analysis pinpoints Charcot's problems in describing an isolated pathology in terms of its relation to its neighbour, epilepsy.     

Pierre Marie: gifted intellect,poor timing and unchecked emotionality

Pierre Marie was a prominent member of the French neurological world of the early twentieth century. Having been trained by the celebrated physician, J-M Charcot, Marie remained influenced by his teacher throughout his career. Because of this influence, his career can be logically divided into three phases: first, the early years under the direct mentorship of Charcot (1878-1893); secondly, the aftermath of Charcot's death when Marie left his teacher's institution, the Salpêtrière hospital and established himself at the Bicêtre hospital in southern Paris (1893-1918); and finally, Marie's return to the Salpêtrière to assume the original Charcot chaired professorship, albeit as an aged man (1918-1925). This essay examines Marie's career with an emphasis on documentation of the combined attributes of a gifted intellect as well as a heated emotionality. In the context of his time, these elements prompted Marie to enter into controversies and medico-political battles that advanced neurological knowledge, but likely disadvantaged him in his career successes.     

Making Distinctions: The Contribution of Hector Landouzy to Differential Diagnosis in Relation to Hysteria and Epilepsy

Hector Landouzy (1818-1864) is known for his Traité Complet de l'Hystérie (1846), which was crowned by the Académie de Médecine, but this work is not given much importance in historical accounts. It deserves more attention because it was more than an orthodox statement about the nature of hysteria. In the context of the diagnostic confusion between epilepsy and hysteria, it introduced a method of presenting criteria to facilitate diagnosis. An examination of French authors on epilepsy and hysteria in the second half of the nineteenth century suggests that this method probably set the example which was to be followed by later clinicians, including Charcot at the Salpêtrière.     

Charcot and aphasia

Whereas the beginning part of Charcot's career was occupied with a rigorous and unerring devotion to the anatomo-clinical method, his later career shared attention with physiologic and psychological analyses of hysteria. The seeming paradox between these differing approaches to neurologic study can be better understood by an analysis of Charcot's work on aphasia. This area of study grew out of Charcot's larger research effort on cerebral localization, but was not well known, because most of his lectures on aphasia were never widely published or distributed in either French or English. In analyzing aphasia, Charcot began with anatomic lesions, but gradually incorporated cases of hysterical aphasia, as evidence of dynamic lesions of the same brain areas. Although aphasia never represented a prominent area of study for Charcot, it held a particularly important place in his career first because it provided this transition between anatomic and physiologic approaches to neurologic research, and second because it permitted a natural two-way passage between the topics of cerebral localization and hysteria.     

About Medicine and the Arts Charcot and French Literature at the fin-de-siècle

The relationship between medicine and the arts, literature in particular, has many aspects. One of the most obvious relations is the use of literature as a source for historical studies. Jean-Martin Charcot and his school often appear in French literature at the end of the 19th century. Several aspects will be highlighted in this study, including (1) the ideas about degenerative diseases in the work of Emile Zola, the main author of the naturalistic movement; (2) decadence and spiritism in two transitional novels by Joris Karl Huysmans, who, once supporter of the naturalistic movement, changed his ideas following observations of disease and cure that could not be explained in a scientific way. Charcots work on hysteria and hypnosis, as well as Brown-Séquards rejuvenation experiments with testicular extracts played an important role with this respect; (3) Charcots relationship with the Daudets, in particular his treatment of Alphonses tabes dorsalis and the ambivalent attitude of his son Léon Daudet towards Charcot; (4) the influence of the lectures at the Salptrire on the work of Guy de Maupassant, who attended the lessons in the mid-1880s. The reading of novels and biographies of these authors provides a part of the social context and the cultural atmosphere in Paris at the “fin-de-siècle” when Charcot and his school played an important role in medicine. Moreover, it shows the influence of medicine and science on society as recorded by writers.     

"鲁迅风波":当代中国思想史的一个侧面

鲁迅的著作已成为经典,不论在文学史上,还是在思想史上,都是公认的事实.而且这在鲁迅生前业已发生,是在各种思想争论中历史地形成的.自改革开放和思想解放运动以来的20余年间,鲁迅及其思想又遭遇挑战,这已不是经典形成的话题,而是挑战经典本身,由此而引发的纷纭评说,人称"鲁迅风波"."鲁迅风波"虽经几起几落,但其背后隐藏的,不啻是鲁迅经典文本的现代阐释,尽管阐释有严肃的,也有调侃的,但都是借阐释鲁迅以表达某种当代思想诉求.因此,关于鲁迅的不同层面、不同取向的论争,凸显的无疑是当代中国思想史的一个侧面.     

George Sigerson: Charcot's translator

Senator George Sigerson (1836-1925), Dublin's first neurologist, was also a significant contributor to Anglo-Irish literature. His medical career and literary accomplishments are outlined, the focus of the article being Sigerson's friendly relationship with Charcot (with whom he corresponded), and whose Le?ons sur les maladies du système nerveux he translated.     

Hysteria behind the scenes: Jane Avril at the Salpetriere

Jane Avril (1868-1943), the famous dancer of the Moulin Rouge, immortalized by Toulouse-Lautrec, left behind published Memoires (1933). Trustworthy and written with verve, they include an account of her admission to Charcot's service at the Salpetriere in December 1882. There she was kept until June 1884, not so much because of illness but to protect her from her mother's abuse. Jane Avril provides unvarnished testimony of the daily life of the women with hysteria among whom she lived. She wrongly accuses them of simulation. But she accurately portrays the rivalry of the 'crazy girls' who vied to become the center of attention, and she sheds light on the factors that came together to make hysteria contagious (she herself escaped), the loading of symptomatology and the cultivation of the ailment. Charcot has been criticized on this score, since he showed his recognition of the underlying process when he pronounced isolation to be necessary to treatment. If Charcot accommodated hysteria, the ailment amply rewarded him with a fame that continues to this day to overshadow his achievement in neuropathology that he brilliantly forged using the "anatomo-clinical method."     

« Vivre de sa Plume » Réflexions sur un topos de l’Auctorialité Moderne

What does it mean to « live by the pen »? The expression has often been invoked by historians advancing an account of progress in literary practices marked by the passage of writers from patronage to the marketplace; an account hoping to define authorial « modernity » with respect to an older model of the literary figure who is protected by nobility. Yet a careful examination shows that this progress towards economic autonomy based on the sale of works is hardly as self-evident as it has been assumed. This article thus studies the ambiguities of the historical account implicit in the idea of « living by the pen ». It then proposes a different approach, which considers this idea not as the reflection of a new professional reality, but as an element in a new rhetoric of self-presentation as intellectual. As a topos, the image designates and indeed, constitutes the social liberation of the author from nobility as well as his moral authority when his efforts to live off his writing inevitably fail yet he persists nonetheless to sacrifice his personal happiness for his art.     

Neurobiographies: Writing Lives in the History of Neurology and the Neurosciences

This essay surveys the present state of biographical writing in the history of neurology and neuroscience. Individual lives play a significant role in practitioner-historians' narratives, whereas academic historians tend to be more nonindividualistic and a-biographical. Autobiographies by neurologists and neuroscientists, and particularly autobiographical collections, are problematic as an historical genre. Neurobiographies proper are published with several aims in mind: some are written as literary entertainment, others as contributions to a cultural and social history of the neurosciences. Eulogy, panegyrics and commemoration play a great role in neurobiographical writing. Some biographies, finally, are written to provide role-models for young neuroscientists, thus reviving the classical, Plutarchian biographical tradition. Finally, a recent cooperative biography of Charcot is mentioned as an example of how the biographical genre can help overcome the alleged dichotomy between the historiographies of practitioner-historians and academic historians.     

Neurobiographies: writing lives in the history of neurology and the neurosciences

This essay surveys the present state of biographical writing in the history of neurology and neuroscience. Individual lives play a significant role in practitioner-historians' narratives, whereas academic historians tend to be more nonindividualistic and a-biographical. Autobiographies by neurologists and neuroscientists, and particularly autobiographical collections, are problematic as an historical genre. Neurobiographies proper are published with several aims in mind: some are written as literary entertainment, others as contributions to a cultural and social history of the neurosciences. Eulogy, panegyrics and commemoration play a great role in neurobiographical writing. Some biographies, finally, are written to provide role-models for young neuroscientists, thus reviving the classical, Plutarchian biographical tradition. Finally, a recent cooperative biography of Charcot is mentioned as an example of how the biographical genre can help overcome the alleged dichotomy between the historiographies of practitioner-historians and academic historians.     

Alexander of Macedon in Georgian Folktales

In European and Eastern folklore, Alexander of Macedon (Alexander the Great) is an important figure, introduced through literature and subject to diverse interpretations in folklore, in line with patterns common in folk narratives. Alexander the Great never visited Georgia during his campaigns, yet is one of the most popular characters in Georgian folklore. The Georgian folktales featuring Alexander draw on literary influences from Antiquity and the Middle Ages, representing at the same time an integral part of national folklore. This article shows how a historical figure can be transformed in folk traditions and what role the genre specifics of folklore may have for the formation of the image of such a character.     

Charcot and Les névroses traumatiques: scientific and historical reflections

Between 1878 and 1893, Jean-Martin Charcot published over twenty detailed case histories dealing with what he termed 'traumatic hysteria' and what today would be labelled the psychoneurology of trauma. Charcot's cases record a highly diverse clinique tableau of symptoms. Etiologically, Charcot posited a dual model of a hereditary diathèse, or constitutional predilection to nervous degeneration, and an environmental agent provocateur. Increasingly during the 1880s, he emphasized the role of 'psychical shock'. These writings of Charcot also exhibit many of the same, superb clinical qualities that distinguish his work on other medical topics. Charcot isolated several hystero-traumatic formations and provided outstanding clinical depictions of subgenres of the disorder, most notably brachial monoplegias. His clinical demonstrations of the differential diagnosis of organic and functional post-traumatic pathologies represent Charcot the virtuoso neurologist at his finest. Taken together, these writings offer a penetrating exploration of the complex and elaborate functional sequelae of minor bodily injury and the phenomenon of traumatic psychogenic somatic symptom-formation. The revival today of medical interest in psycho-traumatic pathology, including the traumatic origins of certain dissociative states, provides an important context for the renewed appreciation of Charcot's work in this area.     

Institutions and Falsified Culture in the Novel Evening Act by Croatian Writer Pavao Pavličić

`In one area of his prose work, the Croatian writer Pavao Pavli?i? belongs to a group of writers in the 1970s who used a fantastic narrative model and thematized irrational parallel worlds as opposed to a realist model of narration. Pavli?i?’s novel Evening Act (published as Ve?ernji akt in 1981) has a realistic beginning, but it slips into fantastic narration when the main character, a young man called Mihovil, discovers his ability to falsify documents and works of art. At the same time, he is capable of recognizing falsified art works and documents that are accepted as an integral part of social, cultural, and historical memory. When this ability becomes dangerous, Mihovil falsifies his own body to escape from his unbearable reality. This paper will analyse the function of the fantastic model in Pavli?i?’s novel as a postmodern play with traditions of Croatian and world literature and culture. The ludic layer of the novel has a highly symbolic value: it draws attention to the relationship of cultural institutions and society to the authenticity of art works, the role of art, and ways of preserving (or destroying) cultural memory.     

当代中国史研究中的文献史料问题

当代中国史研究需要搜集、整理、考证和利用文献史料。搜集史料要求“全”,整理史料要求“实”,考证史料要求“真”,利用史料要求“准”,这些直接关系到所出研究成果的科学水平和学术质量。当代中国史文献史料类型多种,既包括有关的文件和档案、文集和文稿、报纸和新闻稿、定期刊物、纪实和回忆、资料汇编,又涉及地方史志、史学史料、国外资料、批判研究资料。就此文献史料进行马克思主义的历史考察和具体分析,可加深对其真实性、政治性和现实性的认识。建国后,学术界十分重视当代中国史文献史料工作:搜集相当广泛,整理比较系统,考证多有创新,利用成效显著。倘能对此丰富实践继续给予理论上的总结,无论对于当代中国史文献史料学的学科建设,乃至当代中国史研究的深入和发展,都具有一定的理论意义和实践价值。     

Hermann Oppenheim's observations about music in aphasia

Hermann Oppenheim was influential in many areas of neurology, but his ideas about music are relatively unknown. In 1888, he published a paper that outlined how the assessment of music skills in patients with aphasia could lead to a better understanding of aphasia and language. Oppenheim conducted the first comprehensive music assessment as part of a neurologic examination and presented the first case series of music in aphasia. His paper was widely cited and had significant influence over the next 30 years. Although largely unrecognized as such, Oppenheim was an important historical figure in the study of music and neurology.     

森鸥外的文学之旅与思想历程

森鸥外是活跃在日本明治和大正两个年代的文坛巨星,他从小受到了良好的儒家文化熏陶,青年时期又接受了西方的近代思想。他一生创作了大量的作品,是一个具有双重性格的作家。在他早期文学作品中,具有启蒙思想和浪漫主义倾向。作为一名军医,他充当了日本帝国主义侵略战争的工具,他的人道主义精神只能凭借文学之笔来表达。在“大逆事件”中,森鸥外通过文学作品为被害者伸张正义。在“大逆事件”后日本文坛的黑暗时期,鸥外不得不通过历史小说表达对时局的批评和对封建体制的反抗。晚年的鸥外转向了历史传记的创作,削弱了作品的批判力度,追求“达观”的境界。