Hysteria: The Transgression of Desire

The Tenerife Arts Space (TEA) is hosting an exhibition on the fascination of Surrealism with hysteria, as depicted by French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot in his Iconographie photographique de la Salpêtrière.

In his study, Charcot used photographs of his female patients to analyse and describe the various stages of hysteria and its bodily symptoms. To the Surrealists, hysteria and its clinical characterisation were a fascinating subject. They thought that the clinical diagnosis of female hysteria was used to tag women who defied the moral values and rules of bourgeois society.