SARAH ZITNER : Sewing Myself into My Bed
My PhD research examines historic and contemporary representations of hysteria to demonstrate the ways in which the cultural imaging of psychosomatic disorders has contributed to the shaping of the symptoms. The photographic work addresses the ways in which hysteria operates as a form of subconscious and subversive self-inscriptions, the symptoms emerge as a type of body language, this self-destructive language speaks of trauma and repression.
My photographs reference the 19^th photographic documentations of Dr. Charcot’s hysterics at the Salpêtrière Hospital. The visual qualities ascribed to the hysteric and the boundaries of the visual representations of hysteria; portrayed in a nineteenth century European medical and aesthetic discourse demonstrates ways in which the body can mark itself through its very biological configurations with physiological and psychological consequences. The documentation of the hysterics, created at the Salpêtrière hospital under the direction of Charcot, became a contributing factor in the development of the patient’s symptoms.