The Feminization of Mental Disorders: A Clinical Lesson at the Salpêtrière

Abstract

This article analyzes the formation of visualization of hysterical insanity in art on the example of the canvas by Pierre-Andre Brouillet A Clinical Lesson at the Salpêtrière. Considering the long practice of feminization of insanity, we can conclude that Brouillet captured the phenomenon of the “Charcot regime”, exposing its discussion fields. By fixing the female pathological body in a certain place, he demonstrated two discursive tricks: how patriarchal institutions defined a woman as a being devoid of her own opinion, and how a woman “evaporated”, became an object under male power influence, demonstrating the significance of the term “phallocula- centrism” and scopophilia of the second half of the 19th century introduced by L. Irigaray. As a result, it reflected the characteristics of hysteria that allowed this disease to feminize insanity and introduce it into the visual culture of the time: mimetism, simulation, representa- tion, mimicry, cataloging, and registration. The female body became a pent-up “alphabet”, embodying the idea of Sigmund Freud’s mirror and Jacques Lacan’s reasoning about the nature of the hysterical personality type. The disease, which has “thousands of guises” and exists solely due to visual appearance, revealed not only the problems of Patriarchy of most social and power institutions, but also relationships. As a result, the acute and controversial colloquial characterization of “hysterical”, which was included due to the popularity of the visual image of a mentally ill woman created at the Salpêtrière, is still becoming a relevant topic for research in modern visual practices.