Figure 2
The persons with epilepsy offered a profusion of artistic material
for the Salpêtrière studies on hysteria, as can be seen in two
publications with Charcot’s participation: the
Iconographie Photographique de la
Salpêtrière (1877)
1010 Bourneville DM, Regnard P. Iconographie photographique de la
Salpêtrière. Paris: Progrès Medical; 1877. and
Les Demoniaques dans
L'Art (1887)
99 Charcot JM, Richer PMLP. Les démoniaques dans l'art.
Paris: Delahaye et Lecrosnier; 1887.. The
Iconographie Photographique de
la Salpêtrière was a key element in the Parisian
Hysteria approach
88 Faber DP. Jean-Martin Charcot and the epilepsy/hysteria
relationship. J Hist Neurosci. 1997;6(3):275-290.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09647049709525714
https://doi.org/10.1080/0964704970952571...
,1010 Bourneville DM, Regnard P. Iconographie photographique de la
Salpêtrière. Paris: Progrès Medical; 1877.. Charcot's disciples, mainly
Bourneville, who arranged for the publication of Charcot's works,
produced several of its volumes. In
Les Demoniaques dans
L'Art, Richer and Charcot pursuits all forms of works
of art to exemplify the syndrome of hysteria and its various bodily
expressions. The last chapter includes a detailed text description and
pictorial representation of the four stages of hysteria of the great
epileptic attack. The patients allegedly evolve through these stages,
the second one includes the
arc-en-cercle, the most
well known
99 Charcot JM, Richer PMLP. Les démoniaques dans l'art.
Paris: Delahaye et Lecrosnier; 1887.:
1
st epileptic period (“… it is necessary to
divide it into three phases: the tonic phase, the clonic phase, and the
resolution phase”); 2
nd clownistic period (“It
consists of two distinct orders of phenomena: the great contortions and
movements by different processes meet the same principle dominant
throughout this period and seeking the same result, that an overstated
amount of muscle strength”); 3
rd passionate attitude
period (“Hallucination obviously chairs this third
period”); 4
th terminal period (“After a period
of passionate attitudes or plastic poses, one might say, strictly
speaking, the attack is over. Knowledge is back, but only in part, and
for a while the patient remains in the grip of a delusion whose
character varies; it is intersected by hallucinations and sometimes
accompanied by some movement disorders”).
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