Hysteria Complicated by Ecstasy

The Case of Nanette Leroux

Nonfiction, Health & Well Being, Psychology, History, Medical, Religion & Spirituality
Cover of the book Hysteria Complicated by Ecstasy by Jan Goldstein, Princeton University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jan Goldstein ISBN: 9781400833719
Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication: October 31, 2011
Imprint: Princeton University Press Language: English
Author: Jan Goldstein
ISBN: 9781400833719
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication: October 31, 2011
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Language: English

Hysteria Complicated by Ecstasy offers a rare window into the inner life of a person ordinarily inaccessible to historians: a semiliterate peasant girl who lived almost two centuries ago, in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Eighteen-year-old Nanette Leroux fell ill in 1822 with a variety of incapacitating nervous symptoms. Living near the spa at Aix-les-Bains, she became the charity patient of its medical director, Antoine Despine, who treated her with hydrotherapy and animal magnetism, as hypnosis was then called. Jan Goldstein translates, and provides a substantial introduction to, the previously unpublished manuscript recounting Nanette's strange illness--a manuscript coauthored by Despine and Alexandre Bertrand, the Paris physician who memorably diagnosed Nanette as suffering from "hysteria complicated by ecstasy." While hysteria would become a fashionable disease among urban women by the end of the nineteenth century, the case of Nanette Leroux differs sharply from this pattern in its early date and rural setting.

Filled with intimate details about Nanette's behavior and extensive quotations of her utterances, the case is noteworthy for the sexual references that contemporaries did not recognize as such; for its focus on the difference between biological and social time; and for Nanette's fascination with the commodities available in the region's nascent marketplace. Goldstein's introduction brilliantly situates the text in its multiple contexts, examines it from the standpoint of early nineteenth-century medicine, and uses the insights of Foucault and Freud to craft a twenty-first-century interpretation.

A compelling, multilayered account of one young woman's mental afflictions, Hysteria Complicated by Ecstasy is an extraordinary addition to the cultural and social history of psychiatry and medicine.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Hysteria Complicated by Ecstasy offers a rare window into the inner life of a person ordinarily inaccessible to historians: a semiliterate peasant girl who lived almost two centuries ago, in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Eighteen-year-old Nanette Leroux fell ill in 1822 with a variety of incapacitating nervous symptoms. Living near the spa at Aix-les-Bains, she became the charity patient of its medical director, Antoine Despine, who treated her with hydrotherapy and animal magnetism, as hypnosis was then called. Jan Goldstein translates, and provides a substantial introduction to, the previously unpublished manuscript recounting Nanette's strange illness--a manuscript coauthored by Despine and Alexandre Bertrand, the Paris physician who memorably diagnosed Nanette as suffering from "hysteria complicated by ecstasy." While hysteria would become a fashionable disease among urban women by the end of the nineteenth century, the case of Nanette Leroux differs sharply from this pattern in its early date and rural setting.

Filled with intimate details about Nanette's behavior and extensive quotations of her utterances, the case is noteworthy for the sexual references that contemporaries did not recognize as such; for its focus on the difference between biological and social time; and for Nanette's fascination with the commodities available in the region's nascent marketplace. Goldstein's introduction brilliantly situates the text in its multiple contexts, examines it from the standpoint of early nineteenth-century medicine, and uses the insights of Foucault and Freud to craft a twenty-first-century interpretation.

A compelling, multilayered account of one young woman's mental afflictions, Hysteria Complicated by Ecstasy is an extraordinary addition to the cultural and social history of psychiatry and medicine.

More books from Princeton University Press

Cover of the book Introduction to Jungian Psychology by Jan Goldstein
Cover of the book History Man by Jan Goldstein
Cover of the book Private Government by Jan Goldstein
Cover of the book How to Die by Jan Goldstein
Cover of the book Epistemology by Jan Goldstein
Cover of the book The Battle of Bretton Woods by Jan Goldstein
Cover of the book Descartes's Method of Doubt by Jan Goldstein
Cover of the book The New Dynamic Public Finance by Jan Goldstein
Cover of the book Weimar Germany by Jan Goldstein
Cover of the book The Origins of Happiness by Jan Goldstein
Cover of the book A Written Republic by Jan Goldstein
Cover of the book The Pocket Instructor: Literature by Jan Goldstein
Cover of the book Pessimism by Jan Goldstein
Cover of the book How to Run a Country by Jan Goldstein
Cover of the book The Backyard Birdsong Guide Western North America by Jan Goldstein
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy