If the earliest account of the wanderings of the womb through the female body is lost in the mists of time, the ghosts of hysteria still exist. We must reread medical texts of the past in order to better uncover the stereotypes that continue to surface in our representations. In this anthology, from Paré to Charcot, all heirs of Galen, physicians were the inventors of hysteria, the authors of a mystification of the feminine; for centuries they brandished this supposed disease that was said to threaten women.
It is this medical discourse, both abundant and seemingly homogeneous, that this anthology seeks to make heard… awaiting Freud.
The Author
Jean-Christophe Abramovici is Professor at Sorbonne University and the author of several books, including Encre de sang. Sade écrivain (Garnier, 2013), Obscénité et classicisme (P.U.F., 2003), and Le Livre interdit (Payot & Rivages, 1996). He is a member of the Biomedical Humanities Initiative.