Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T21:31:29.818Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Caesar of the Salpêtrière” J.-M. Charcot's impact on Psychological Medicine in the 1880s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

William Parry-Jones
William Parry-Jones*
Affiliation:
Highfield Family and Adolescent Unit, Warneford Hospital, Oxford
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The year 1887 is memorable in medical history for the painting depicting ‘Une leçon du Docteur Charcot à la Salpêtrière’ by André Brouillet (1857–1914), a pupil of Gérôme. Lithographs by Eugene Pirodon of this painting were much reproduced and Sigmund Freud hung a copy in his consulting room. In fact, Freud had travelled from Vienna to Paris, in October 1885, to observe the work of Jean-Martin Charcot at the Salpêtrière. Charcot's views about hysteria and hypnosis were to have a formative and enduring influence on Freud, who returned home, four and a half months later, as one of Charcot's unqualified admirers and champions. It is timely, exactly a century later, to reflect on Charcot's work and influence, when his career was at its zenith and, in particular, to consider his impact on British psychological medicine.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists , Volume 11 , Issue 5 , May 1987 , pp. 150 - 153
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1987

References

1. Janet, P. (1925) Psychological Healing. A Historical and Clinical Study, Vol. I. New York: Macmillan, pp 151–207.Google Scholar
2. Charcot, J.-M. (1886–90) Oeuvres complètes de J.M. Charcot (Eds. Bourneville, M.M.D. et al) 9 vols. Paris: Bureaux du Progrès Medical.Google Scholar
3. Freud, E. L. (1970) Letters of Sigmund Freud, 1873–1939. London: Hogarth Press, p. 196.Google Scholar
4. British Medical Journal (1983) 2, 1014.Google Scholar
5. Guillain, G. (1959) J.-M. Charcot, 1825–1893: His Life—His Work. (Ed. & trans. by Bailey, P.). London: Pitman Medical.Google Scholar
6. Owen, A. R. G. (1971) Hysteria, Hypnosis and Healing: The Work of J.-M. Charcot. London: Dennis Dobson.Google Scholar
7. Ellenberger, H. F. (1970) The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
8. Chertok, L. (1984) On the centenary of Charcot: Hysteria, suggestibility and hypnosis. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 57, 111–120.Google Scholar
9. Notes and News (1880) Notes of a visit to Professor Charcot's wards. Journal of Mental Science, 26, 131–134.Google Scholar
10. Reviews (1884) Lectures on the localisation of cerebral and spinal diseases. By Professor Charcot. Journal of Mental Science, 30, 287–288.Google Scholar
11. Reviews (1888) Leçons sur les maladies du système nerveux faites à la Salpêtrière. Par J.M. Charcot. Journal of Mental Science, 33, 576–583; and (1888) Ibid. 34, 113–116.Google Scholar
12. Robertson, G. M. (1892) Hypnotism at Paris and Nancy. Notes of a visit. Journal of Mental Science, 38, 494–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13. Reviews (1882) Études Cliniques sur l'hystéro-épilepsie, ou grandes hystéric by Dr Paul Richer. Brain,iv, 507–517.Google Scholar
14. Editorial (1893) Charcot and hypnotism. British Medical Journal, 2, 479–480.Google Scholar
15. Obituary (1893) Professor Charcot. Ibid., 495–496.Google Scholar
16. Tuke, D. H. (1892) A Dictionary of Psychological Medicine, Vol. I. London: Churchill, pp. 606–610 & 627–641.Google Scholar
17. Freud, S. (1893) Charcot. In Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (trans. Strachey, J.). Vol. 3. London: Hogarth Press, pp. 11–23.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.