Photography and the “discovery” of hysteria

Abstract

The concept of hysteria has been historically situated in the opposition between the organic and the mental. It continues to be at the center of controversies between important areas, such as psychoanalysis and psychiatry. We tried to elucidate the origin of the concept of hysteria by contrasting a conception that defends the existence of a world independent of the human mind (realism), and another that denies it (antirealism). Following the scientific trend of the 19th century, the French physician Jean-Martin Charcot used photography - at that time photography was seen as the scientist’s “true retina” - to create a typology of human beings. Situating this construction of knowledge and its sociocultural context provokes a questioning as to its objectivity. Our suggestion is that to think in a critical way about the origin of the concepts gives us elements for a better exercise of alterity in psychopathology.