Performing Neurology: The Dramaturgy Of Dr Jean-martin Charcot
by Jonathan W. Marshall /
2016 / English / PDF
3.6 MB Download
This text provides a study of Jean-Martin Charcot, a founding
figure in the history of neurology as a discipline and a
colleague of Sigmund Freud. It argues that Charcot’s diagnostic
and pedagogic models, explaining both how disease is recognized
and described and how to teach the act of neurological diagnosis,
should be considered through a theatrical lens. Considering the
constitution of the living, moving body in terms of performance,
Charcot created a situation whereby the line between deceptive
acting and real pathology, scientific accuracy and creative
falsehood, and indeed between health and unhealth, becomes
blurred. The physician becomes a medical subject in his or her
own display, transforming medicine into a potentially
destabilizing, even grand guignolesque, discourse. Offering a
unique insight into Charcot’s work, his concepts and his methods,
this text represents a unique and interdisciplinary analysis
cutting across the fields of art and neurology.
This text provides a study of Jean-Martin Charcot, a founding
figure in the history of neurology as a discipline and a
colleague of Sigmund Freud. It argues that Charcot’s diagnostic
and pedagogic models, explaining both how disease is recognized
and described and how to teach the act of neurological diagnosis,
should be considered through a theatrical lens. Considering the
constitution of the living, moving body in terms of performance,
Charcot created a situation whereby the line between deceptive
acting and real pathology, scientific accuracy and creative
falsehood, and indeed between health and unhealth, becomes
blurred. The physician becomes a medical subject in his or her
own display, transforming medicine into a potentially
destabilizing, even grand guignolesque, discourse. Offering a
unique insight into Charcot’s work, his concepts and his methods,
this text represents a unique and interdisciplinary analysis
cutting across the fields of art and neurology.