The essential character of hysteria / Tom A. Williams.

  • Williams, Tom A. (Tom Alfred), 1870-
Date:
[1910?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The essential character of hysteria / Tom A. Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    autlior’s compliia /2, Our regrettable reliance upon the ipse dixit of a great name is again illustrated by the reorganization now occurring in our ideas on hysteria. The present trend of the clinical concept of hysteria has turned, un- der the guidance of Babinski, towards ideas \\hich were placed in the background by the clinical picture of the “grande nevrose drawn by Qiarcot. That is to say, the earlier conception of Bernheim has received its due, and most neurologists in France at least, have acceded to the proposition that a “hysterical symptom is one susceptible of production by suggestion and of removal by suggestion-persuasion.” Bernheim, how- ever, now considers the phenomenon of suggestibility to be normal, and the emo- tional attacks (les crises de nerfs) are for him the only hysteria. In actual practice, in English speaking countries at least, the heresies of Charcot have had little influence, except perhaps among a few neurologists. The reason for this I shall not attempt to explain. But let me recall an experiment which Joire conducted in the early nineties with a girl named Marie. During hypnosis, it was suggested that she see her name written upon a translucent card. She was then asked to trace the letters she saw, and did so thus “M-a-r-i-e.” She was again hypno- tised, and the experiment repeated, but at this time the surface of the card which she had seen was turned away from her against a window, so that any letter would appear reversed as they were seen through the card. She was again asked to trace what she saw and did so as follows—e-i-r-a-M. She must therefore have perceived that the