p o n^rInvention of Hysteria

Charcot and the Photographic lconography ofthe Salptrire

Georges Didi-Huberrnan
Translated by Alisa Hartz

The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, Englmd

Chapter

Legends ofPhotograPhY

was marked by this effort and anxiety.

only a few years

rarer, Albert Londe,s

The Legend of ttre Surface, the Facies

hy, with a capitl

..p,,_I

mean rhe

\\ \\

trn
had

e Trace,

incontestablyfthfirl, durable,
he face the corporeal surface

))
of the soul, ideally. This also holds the

ory
durable rrace

makest* I

ofall

for

'

perhologice_l

modi$' the exterior form ofthe pari atricude, or special facies upon him. These impartial arld rapidly collected
to medical observations insofaras they under study before everyonet eyes.,'36

Cart e]lains
en drt of

and PerhaPs also

took the form of

the pofint. In any case, this portraiture was a very Perticular art, in which "face" ,.facies." was an art ofsr rface teritoies, yet elways seekIt wes nnderstood as ing a more intimate localization, the concomitant convolution in the brain. Doubtless, this was a legcy of that strange territoriel or configuretive science, if I may Put it like that, of Gall's phrenology' Gall w passionately interested, for instance, in a certain woman's face; he even took

ist

before,,37).

quence

ofthe illness ad did not ex-

Photography had to crystallize rhe ce into a Tbleau: nor en ex_ terxive tableau, but a tableau in which the Type was condensed in a unique rmage, orin a univocal series ofimages_thefaces.
Determining the facies app placing it before everyonet

her delicate head in his han&-but his caressing fingers were on-ly seeking the region, bump, or cePhalic fold corresponding to the lady's monomania. And in his other hand, opposite her' he held a death's head-I phremean e skull-for comparison (frg. 21). I speak of a legacy because the theoretical basis of all psycholnology lost no time in positing itself as ogy under the ensign of positivism;{ charcot's cerebral localizations are affiliated, as it were. It was also an ert of the detailed, the tenuous, the agmented of the commissule ofterritories, but always in search ofa law prescribing their minuscule differences. Bourneville photographed idiots and, on the basis ofhis portrait galery sought a concePt of ldiocy in the minute anatomithe form cal pinpointing ofbuccal oPenings, the comnissure of che lips'

to do. In cetain doubd:l

prints taken in variow places or at distant times provides the assur_ ance that the illness in difrent subjects who were not on hand at the seme dme is indeed one and the same. This work
has been accom_ rco, and the facies belonging to nters is now well_known. .With

e easy to repeat Galtons experi_ ition, a composite print provid_

of .n..rc, the roof of the mouth, gums and teeth, uvulas' soft ofevery
Ieme research to

palates'a1

sousht the differerrtial muscular corrrrrisanimrt tingdom, used it

as

rions disappea bringing to light

the

i[

A facies is that which is bound and determined to summarize and generalize rhe case, determjned to makeJoresighr possible: and this, in the
aspect of afa.

bis for his great phylogenetic history of the expression of emotions'43 The face subsumed under e facies thus allowed for a logic and etiol-

ogy of its own eccidenrs. It did so through a subtle and constant art ofthe recouung of surfaces, always seeking depth-conceptual depth-in the filmy fabric or stratum he constructed: the depth of the Type' Galton was the rega virtuoso ofthis art ofrecovering: h e Prolueel the Type through had collected. If rhe faces obtained ulated superpositibn of portraits he

a\

Chapter

Legends ofPhotograPhY

3'i.i.,t:fS1fA

probbit blurred, what did ic matter; it scill constiruted a figurative (fig' 23) ' thus a "scientific" portrait4r , rigorous in itself, and that: the lU-.rt fo.t., at the Salptrire, was searching for exacdy in time and the diffigurative probabiliry that would find its law

of aface:.

for diagnosis-46

In this way the

espect

of the face,

sub

o amenable to a codifiable, recordable state

lant inquiry into forms, it opened the way

The Legend ofldentity and its Protocol

3.J-i.!.-lf f)_ o 9J3,

Phrenology,

print (Muse diHistoire de la Mdecine, paris).

Fisure 2l

rure de police in their efforts must also be interrogted)'

IEC TRO-PHYSIOTOGIE

PHOTOGRAPHIQUN.

Iiat fll[cnhers of tunr fuwalg l

[e*Ftde.

CRIMINAII

Cr,

of tle mqry tutI

ot{suMPTlOI'l AND OTHER MALADI'ES

DDc[r\B (do Bonlon), phot:

SPECIIVIEN
D'$N
I'XTR

tECE LDCTRO-I)HISIOLOGIQU[, tih l,luJTntT.

. ,, .

.
oJ

, :; .,.

:-iii,lr,::::

F Duchenne de Bo
Elecro-physiologica

h"^,,'p;y;i;s":;;

Chapter

Lends ofPhotograPhY
as early

In any ce, the development of psychiauic photography in the nineteenth cencury emerged om the same general *o.r.*..r, as foren_ sic photography.aT Moreover, the pivotal discipline ofcriminal anthropol_ ogy occupied an eminenr strategic position in this movem..rt; it tooi., much interest in rhe phorogaphic portrais ofcriminals and t}le insane it did in their skulls (fig. 2a, 25).
A certain Lacan, rakin stock ofphotography,s miraculous progress, did not hesitate to equete "the accusatory i*g"" of criminars *rtrr1,pr.
'What

de Pais (the first

in the world' created

t872by

fr"r*t nt"*;' on the "mathematical rules" of dimensions in nature'"sl - "ir""" and the "distributionto estblishing the technical '."1i*i.r".io* then opened the way
dangerous rePeat offender con-

considerations :lse Bertillon's "theoretical on the nature of end meansfor-a a reflecdon

of

"deslietiv

signalment"so anal-

of the "mysterrous

Diamond's erudite work":

individuals' antluoPometric clssifr cation of for the identifi cation and

an unknown cadaver de-

convicted criminal could escape police vigilaace? For even he escapes the wa.lls where punishmenirestrains him; even i{ once liberated, he breaks the order that prescribes him a residence; even then his portrait is in the hands of the authoricies. He has no escape. He carnot bur recognize himselfin his accusatory image. And, fiom a physiognornic point of view, whet srudies are these collections in which the narure of the crime is inscribed along side the culprit,s face! One could reed the history ofhuman passiots in this book w.ith .What each face a page:_and each feat re an eloiuent line! a phlo_ sophical treatise! What e poem, which light alone can write! If we pass from illnesses ofthe soul to those ofthe body, we again find the photographer ready to play an imponart role. Before mj, eyes I have a colleccion offourteen portreirs ofwomen of diferenias. Some are smiling, others seem to be dreaming, and all ofthem have some_ thing strange in their physiognomy: ne understads rhis at fint glance. Ifoae consides tem longe one is saddened despite one_ self all these faces have an excaordinary expression that g;ves pain. A single word sufces to explain everything they are madwomen. These portraits are part of a scholarly work by Dr. Diamond.4

if

^me]or

PhotograPhY's2

'#;"i|':';;;'-"';*dl'dlio"

all the Thus this having-to-read was above ;;; *nl dened in photographic procedures'

commandeering of the

-T:::1 orthe pose and shooting or

tntt;'

.portait,(theuniformicv't':::.11'::--'.Tj.:::::"'iiti;'ff;ff tJffi
Sttuice'"* Bettillon had Archives ofthe teotific"tiott
a

.at*ffi;.;l;ti.):53..Anditisturthermoredesirablethtphothe weUcome as close as possible to tography coupled with signent by the cenual *y indic-atiors' defined unifor- typt, "aoptta' ""totdittg'o ofdgte
number

n.i"""ding

"posing

of ."do.tio., benveen

fill-face

t uniformiry

iil;|l;
phYsiognomic. nd ttre onlY

that in this subtJe complicity berween dendry was necessarily elaborated on 'What's
c or forensic petitions and

their tech_ more, photography w the

hy,,,

thing left to do was to

ltli.iry

This having-to-read

foun

under the pen of its own practitioners: I am thinking of Alpho.rr. Bertillon, creator of Signaleric Anthropomerrics, who died in tgi+, n whose "system" w adopted by police forces across the western world starting in 1888. He was the director of rhe phorographic service of
Figure 23 revious page) Galton, Inquira tto Human Faculti ff Aj (ontispiece plate).

archive' "::t^-t:":::1": e certarn susclues raptrs taken by amon pect of a ceftein crime from and 1889's in the Pr the Identificaon Service of of"Bertillonage'" ;.;;""" with the well-named proces (the Londe who' in his own orbit Albe't Let us return tt surveil'", '"it' with its own seedy are and toplttt
ofimages and
Sa1ptrire, a quasi-ciry,

overleaf)

portrits and

Lo:ntroso nne oninel (7878)'

, collected bY

CBNES DE CRIMTNELLES.

Chapter

Legends ofPhotograPhY

But let us return to my subjects, Bourneville and Rgnard, who' a before Londe, were-still hesitating. They confined themselves that were more aleatory; their predation of images, rn reto hysterics, was still marked by someth ts they took still left room for the aara, I rges that were so much more comPlex,
doubtless, this happened despite their intentlons' Bourneville, for one, later compensated for such hesitations regrdboth Bertillonage and wardership, by photo-measuring the children his service at the Bictre hospital (figs. 27-30)' But whjle at the Salpuire, Rgnard and Bourneville were still exto the ruk of a more intimate paradox of photographic practice' were searching for the facies in faces and they awempted to deny all xical effect, of course;but they were only partially successful' This why their images, more than others, are still enigmatic and disconcertg.The facis not yet the policing of the image, not quite a subject defor observation. It still offers itsel{ I would say' as e speetacle (also

sigrrifiedby..facies''inLatin),neverwhollycloisteredinfixedstage(rhat which scenes. The facies still offers irselfas an act, efacttive the portrait' Jaa-t-something)-an event of

"gives"-

Paradox ofEvidence

..Bertilo: nage"

at police Headquarten

Figure 26

in paris (1g93).

The paradox of photography is what I would call

euiilenee.

a paradox oJ spectacular

lance services), w posi,rg analogous questioru and inventing analogous procedures so as to regulate ,ir. of symptomacic bodies' so thev would-proar"r

at rhe level ofth. tio.rs b.".ing on to

,:rt*"xiuli
phorog*ph,

condirions of rhei exhibitio., derive a unique con

lo'aio* o*ro*., .ig*iJtJ*."u. He regulated the of diferences, so as to -a".rr.r, il;",

It is, in the omitself, despite

tivicy. It is also, is not the essen

edge

tt t:bj3tt its '-tyttt *@t;;r-;nrt;Ao"n-ru.ltdeteinedforob"t*tio",fi

rePeated the end, was ]4-gil&sis.effect, and temPoral drama ofits

that ljps away

trffi..:
port such that he is placed mcally where modifica-

ofa normal person.

.ro rh. -.o,..rr".

,"

. ^

iil,fi,fl:i:ff: - ror the ". ;il;;;

race'

g *

at the same

."*n;;" "'."i:*'jr"*',.1: *" be all the more rell_

to be raised to the rever

*.,

Err.ry image summoned to appear n the leonographie photographique I will be somewhat de la salptrre confronts us with this paradox. But its principles' more specific, in reviewing

Exactitude?
Baudelaire ws ware of a paradox when he railed against photographic exactitude, treating it not as a material effect, a "pure effect" of che photographic act, but as the credo of a "multitude" for whom Daguerre w

[\,',#il'J:'::i;:".:iiili$i:il'trff
t\

:,,'.'.'ri

Chapter

Auns

Aura: Risk of Distance

Contacts of Distance
fso designated But in the nineteenth cenlury dra that fundamenand not the let ofthem: a problem ,**.rt problems, Benjamin wanted to what rathea obliquely, concerns precisely "t;;;t This was the problem of aureoles and "veils": all these luminous ;i.".

one ofphotography's

or paraluminous Phenomena th certain PhotograPhed subjects'

)
the veil; that is' the magical charthe "weave" and of revelation beyond acter, already diabolical and blasphem the the problem of contact at a ilistarce' since in PhotograPhY touches torrr.d, words. Let me illustrate this by dwelli q HippolYte Bareduc' For his oeuwe' exemplary-of the movestrikes me as exemplary-but madly
e sense,

menr

em quesdoning ir,

.g.d

Satp lcar
that

de la Eo the Iconographie photographique to the lirrt' in which med^ge

figurative invendon' thanks to

With Baraduc, there

was some

He was, nonetheless, a very serious' all illness." He w interested above

imitation, or even a PsYchic ePide

Baaduc called it contact-endtht This Passion for contact can be of ovrian compression (inuoducing fection of an intravaginal method the the index and middle finger into
s

the early photographs in the fleeting expression of a human face. This is what constirutes their melancholy, incomparable beaury,,ls And Ben_ jamin speaks of images enveloped in silence, bearers of ,.ominous dis_
cance,"t6

but also, before

now is s :ll real and wilr never consenr to be wholly absorbed in,ertl,'l. And this is at the very heart ofmy own quesrion.

"something that cannot be know what her name w

by ro
en

said' a attack, to "grasP the ovary," he "painful stat Par, thus stopping the

for hysteria, he began recornmendi

such electriciry and magnetism' he euto-suggestion, as well as what electrotheraPY and hYPnotism'

founds calls an spoc of

sounds, and dumb_

s

O.t thi,
showers,"

basis he cooked uP some "cerebral"

to what Benjamin

little mechanized

p"t'"tt*

m caecum' the blind

scientist, making bachelor achines?-No' had taken but a few years earlier' tion near parallel to the one Charcot

or "luminous statrc for brain illnesses'2a Was he a mad he was working in a direc-

Chapter

PREUVE I
such Charles Fr.

Moreover, he estabrished quite cordiar if not professionar relacioru with the most eminenr members of the so_called School of the Salprrire,
Why was Baraduc interesred in hysteria?_Because, and in this sense "0"1":riquet's definition, hysteria is en Ilness of contact, an illness of

II

:.:

//

rmpression.25

Veil, Revelation

mind, graphed on the plate by some other light_rtris is how the aura wes revealed to his eyes for the first time. From that day on, Baaduc could not rest so long as the aura w not fi:lly unveiled.
srate of

In this image, the psychiatrisr Baraduc saw the veil and wind of

He eriperimentally disringuished the aura om.,elecrric winds,,and other magnetisrru prone to leave arr impression on the plate.26 He ttempted to describe it according to the form ofits trace. He called
force," He recogrrized it

it a.,curved

as

the explanation

ofe
.

occult influences, mystical visions, nimbuses,

and so on.27 He idenrified

it with Hippocrates

tance;2' light of the soul because

graphable!2e

out trajectory thus distance without separetion, thus contact at a dis_ its intrinsc, shailoweir, anir invsibre-but
(provided that a very sensirive plate is presented to it). Let us rerurn to the veiled print. It was by no means the effect of the

' Prri"on :

tl'irrne OI). forc itale attire par l'ctat

attendrie tl'tru enfant'

aPPa rreil

(Saos dleotricit, arec

photograyhique' sans la ruain')

Vented-by virrue, indeed, of the photograpi sclirn_in the

case

of

on the photograph ofa child' pparition ofthe "vital force"laura) (7896)' by Dr' Baraduc' IIAe hunaine uken

Figue

35