Episode 2: Jean-Martin Charcot, hypnosis, and hysteria (Body Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics) Episode overview In this episode we trace a “lineage of ideas” from early psychosomatic thinking (Heinroth) into Charcot’s Salpêtrière—where hysteria becomes a neurological problem to be classified, demonstrated, and (attempted to be) treated. We explore hypnosis as both clinical method and spectacle, the ethics of suggestion and consent, and how the Charcot–Nancy School dispute prefigures contemporary debates about Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). Core themes and keywords Charcot; Salpêtrière; Tuesday lectures; hysteria; hypnosis; suggestion; consent; mechanist/positivist neurology; clinico-anatomical method; “artifact of suggestion”; male hysteria; railway spine/trauma; globus hystericus; Mesmer/animal magnetism; Franklin Commission; James Braid; Nancy School (Liébeault/Bernheim); Freud; Breuer; cathartic method; Studies on Hysteria; Tourette; “hypnotised to commit crimes”; gender, spectacle, and medical gaze; modern FND vs conversion disorder. [00:00–01:29] Hypnosis, authority, and consent Hypnosis framed as inherently directive: confidence, assertion, and “telling” someone what to do. A live clinical question emerges: does explicit consent (as practised in contemporary therapy) measurably improve outcomes, or does it alter suggestibility and the therapeutic frame? [01:45–04:54] Charcot in brief: neurology, hysteria, legacy, and critique Charcot introduced as “founder of modern neurology,” famous for Salpêtrière teaching and demonstrations; later criticised by some historians as misunderstanding psychiatry. Art/imagery highlighted as part of his clinical method (photography/drawing; iconography of hysteria). [05:14–09:40] The psychosomatic fork: Heinroth → Charcot → Freud Key contrast: Heinroth’s psychosomatic moral model vs Charcot’s mechanist/positivist search for a physical cause of hysteria. Discussion links the later shift from “conversion” language to “functional neurological” language as, arguably, a return to Charcot-leaning framing (causative neutrality; nervous system emphasis). [09:59–13:39] What “hysteria” meant (and why it matters now) Hysteria sketched as dramatic, medically unexplained motor/sensory phenomena (fits, paralysis, gait changes, voice/throat symptoms). “Globus hystericus” (throat sensation) noted as an enduring historical symptom cluster relevant to contemporary voice clinics. [13:39–16:00] Gender, diagnosis, and Charcot’s expansion to men Charcot’s challenge to the “women-only” prejudice; male hysteria and trauma narratives (e.g., railway accidents). Tension flagged: progress (hysteria not confined to women) alongside a broader history of objectification and spectacle. [16:29–23:40] Mesmer → Franklin Commission → Braid → medical hypnosis Mesmer’s “animal magnetism” as precursor; the Franklin-chaired Royal Commission rejects the proposed magnetic fluid and reframes effects as imagination/suggestion—foundational to the modern “test the mechanism” logic. James Braid positioned as a key medical rehabilitator of hypnotism (moving it towards legitimacy and away from mesmerist metaphysics). [25:36–27:33] Charcot’s demonstrations and the “technology” of hysteria Tuesday lectures described as performance-like demonstrations (classic hypnotic phenomena: misperception, altered affect, heightened responsiveness). Noted somatic interventions: pressure devices/ovarian compression and other bodily “levers,” anticipating later somatic manipulation debates. [27:33–33:34] Treatment vs cure; suggestion as amplifier; contagion and performance A central ambivalence: hypnosis can suppress symptoms transiently—or intensify them into spectacular displays. The “murky” possibility raised: symptoms learned, rehearsed, and socially reinforced within the institution. [31:21–33:11] Feminist unease and erotic afterlives The episode explicitly acknowledges the gendered medical gaze (iconic imagery of a partially undressed patient surrounded by male observers). The Brouillet painting (and its cultural afterlife) is a reference point for this tension. [40:49–43:05] Charcot vs Nancy School: hysteria-bound hypnosis or universal suggestibility? Charcot: hypnotisability as a sign of hysteria/pathology. Nancy School: hypnosis as non-pathological and suggestion-based; wider hypnotisability across the population. Cultural spill-over: courtroom anxieties (can suggestion produce crime?). The Tourette shooting is discussed as an emblematic event in this moral panic. [44:30–55:30] Freud after Charcot: translation, rivalry-seeking, and touch in early practice Freud’s position: impressed by Charcot, but curious enough to visit rivals; proto-“balanced sampling” as he gathers opposing views. Breuer’s cathartic method and hypnosis; the move towards biography, meaning, and unconscious process. Notable for body psychotherapy listeners: the transcript flags how much touch and massage appears in early Freudian clinical work (a useful corrective to the “talk-only” caricature of early psychoanalysis). [58:51–60:13] Hysteria’s disappearance and return (modern reframings) Hysteria understood as historically variable, periodically renamed and redistributed across diagnoses (e.g., contemporary FND frameworks). The episode closes by previewing a next step: Studies on Hysteria as the vessel to explore Breuer, Freud, technique, and ethics. People and institutions mentioned (quick index) Jean-Martin Charcot (Salpêtrière neurologist; hysteria/hypnosis demonstrations). Salpêtrière Hospital; Tuesday lectures; medical theatre. Marie Wittman (“Blanche Wittman”) as the patient in Brouillet’s 1887 painting. Franz Anton Mesmer; Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism (1784); Benjamin Franklin (commissioner). James Braid (medical hypnotism lineage; discussed as rehabilitator). Nancy School: Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault, Hippolyte Bernheim; suggestion as central mechanism. Sigmund Freud; Josef Breuer; cathartic method; Studies on Hysteria (setup for next episode). Georges Gilles de la Tourette; shooting by Rose Kamper and “hypnotised” claim (crime/suggestion debate). Take-home ideas (for clinicians) Technique is never neutral: suggestion, authority, and expectation shape symptom expression (down-regulation and amplification). Diagnosis is historically contingent: hysteria → conversion → FND involves shifts in explanatory language, stigma management, and what counts as “evidence” (including the removal of a required psychological stressor in some modern framings). Body psychotherapy lens: this episode positions hypnosis, touch, and institutional context as early “somatic technologies” that foreshadow later body-oriented psychotherapy—while forcing an ethical reckoning around consent, spectacle, and gendered power. References Bailly, J.-S., Franklin, B., Lavoisier, A.-L., & the Royal Commission. (1784/2014). The Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism 1784 (I. M. L. Donaldson, Trans.). Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Bogousslavsky, J. (2010). Gilles de la Tourette’s criminal women: The many faces of fin-de-siècle hysteria. Journal of the Neurological Sciences. Espay, A. J., Aybek, S., Carson, A., Edwards, M. J., Goldstein, L. H., Hallett, M., LaFaver, K., LaFrance, W. C., Jr., Lang, A. E., Nicholson, T., Nielsen, G., Reuber, M., Voon, V., Stone, J., & Morgante, F. (2018). Current concepts in diagnosis and treatment of functional neurological disorders. JAMA Neurology, 75(9), 1132–1141. Kapur, N., & colleagues. (2024). Words matter: “Functional neurologic disorder” or “Functional neurological symptom disorder”? [Article in PubMed Central]. Mayo Clinic. (2022). Functional neurologic disorder/conversion disorder. Showalter, E. (1997). Hystories: Hysterical epidemics and modern media. Columbia University Press. Shorter, E. (1997). A history of psychiatry: From the era of the asylum to the age of Prozac. John Wiley & Sons. Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). A Clinical Lesson at the Salpêtrière. In Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Georges Gilles de la Tourette. In Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Nancy School. In Wikipedia.
