Performing neurology : the dramaturgy of Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot

This text provides a study of Jean-Martin Charcot, a founding figure in the history of neurology as a discipline and a colleague of Sigmund Freud. It argues that Charcot’s diagnostic and pedagogic models, explaining both how disease is recognized and described and how to teach the act of neurological diagnosis, should be considered through a theatrical lens. Considering the constitution of the living, moving body in terms of performance, Charcot created a situation whereby the line between deceptive acting and real pathology, scientific accuracy and creative falsehood, and indeed between health and unhealth, becomes blurred. The physician becomes a medical subject in his or her own display, transforming medicine into a potentially destabilizing, even grand guignolesque, discourse. Offering a unique insight into Charcot’s work, his concepts and his methods, this text represents a unique and interdisciplinary analysis cutting across the fields of art and neurology. "Preface and Acknowledgments"--"Contents"--"List of Figures" -- "List of Tables" -- "Chapter 1: Introduction" -- "1 The Web of Meaning" -- "2 Hysteria and Psychoanalysis" -- "3 French Medicine and the Classical Tradition" -- "4 Butler and Performativity" -- "Chapter 2: Charcot, Spectacle, and the Mise en Sc÷ne of the Salpîtri÷re" -- "1 Vision and Dramaturgy" -- "2 The Stage Manager of the Salpîtri÷re" -- "3 The Versailles of Misery, the Bastille of Medicine" -- "Chapter 3: Building the Stage and Materializing the Archetype" -- "1 Framing the Theatre" -- "2 Platoâ#x80;#x99;s Cave" -- "Chapter 4: The Theatre of the Lecture Theatre" -- "1 Improvised and Ex Cathedra Teaching" -- "2 Multi-Modal Memory in the Amphitheatre" -- "3 Speech versus Spectacle" -- "4 The Perils of the Stage" -- "Chapter 5: The Grotesque Body and the Living Nude" -- "1 Photography, Painting and Scientific Mimesis" -- "2 The Naked Gaze and Sadomasochism" -- "3 The Theatre of the Athletic Nude" -- "4 Taming the Carnival" -- "Chapter 6: The Neurological Theatre of Hysterioepilepsy" -- "1 Bourneville and the Iconography of Hysteria" -- "2 Contracting Chorea, Epilepsy, and Touretteâ#x80;#x99;s" -- "3 Hysterioepilepsy and Psychokinetic Memory" -- "4 The Infective Profligacy of the Protean Body" -- "Chapter 7: Hysterical Hypnosis and Infectious Theatre" -- "1 Upstaging Art" -- "2 Aphasia and the Rehearsal of Gesture" -- "3 Infectious Performance" -- "4 Ancient Theatre, Dionysian Pathology, and the Avant-garde" -- "Chapter 8: Theatrical Appearances and Degenerative Synaesthesia: Munthe and Daudet" -- "1 The Anti-theatrical Critique" -- "2 A Hysterical Melodrama" -- "3 Medicine That Looks and Psychophysical Contagion" -- "4 Medicine, Sensory Health, and Wagneromania" -- "5 The Diseased Home." This text provides a study of Jean-Martin Charcot, a founding figure in the history of neurology as a discipline and a colleague of Sigmund Freud. It argues that Charcot's diagnostic and pedagogic models, explaining both how disease is recognized and described and how to teach the act of neurological diagnosis, should be considered through a theatrical lens. Considering the constitution of the living, moving body in terms of performance, Charcot created a situation whereby the line between deceptive acting and real pathology, scientific accuracy and creative falsehood, and indeed between health and unhealth, becomes blurred. The physician becomes a medical subject in his or her own display, transforming medicine into a potentially destabilizing, even grand guignolesque, discourse-- Charcot, spectacle, and the mise en scène of the Salpêtrière -- Building the stage and materializing the archetype -- The theatre of the lecture theatre -- The grotesque body and the living nude -- The neurological theatre of hysterioepilepsy -- Hysterical hypnosis and infectious theatre -- Theatrical appearances and degenerative synaesthesia : Munthe and Daudet. Jonathan W. Marshall. Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-264) and index. "This text provides a study of Jean-Martin Charcot, a founding figure in the history of neurology as a discipline and a colleague of Sigmund Freud. It argues that Charcot's diagnostic and pedagogic models, explaining both how disease is recognized and described and how to teach the act of neurological diagnosis, should be considered through a theatrical lens. Considering the constitution of the living, moving body in terms of performance, Charcot created a situation whereby the line between deceptive acting and real pathology, scientific accuracy and creative falsehood, and indeed between health and unhealth, becomes blurred. The physician becomes a medical subject in his or her own display, transforming medicine into a potentially destabilizing, even grand guignolesque, discourse"-- Back cover Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction....Pages 1-18 Charcot, Spectacle, and the Mise en Scène of the Salpêtrière....Pages 19-45 Building the Stage and Materializing the Archetype....Pages 47-68 The Theatre of the Lecture Theatre....Pages 69-89 The Grotesque Body and the Living Nude....Pages 91-119 The Neurological Theatre of Hysterioepilepsy....Pages 121-155 Hysterical Hypnosis and Infectious Theatre....Pages 157-185 Theatrical Appearances and Degenerative Synaesthesia: Munthe and Daudet....Pages 187-212 Charcot and the Theatre of Horror and Terror....Pages 213-240 Conclusion....Pages 241-245 Back Matter....Pages 247-277