ABSTRACT
The advent of the modern era in medicine brought with it new ways of observing, recording, and classifying. One of the hallmarks of the history of psychiatry since the Enlightenment concerns the proliferation of images of madness and the deep faith that the profession placed in such images. In the modern era, images of madness have been used to produce knowledge of disease pictures, to awaken understanding and sympathy for patients and for their physicians and caretakers, as well as to communicate knowledge of reforms and warnings about particular kinds of health risks. The case of Jean-Martin Charcot may seem to suggest that in certain respects to be a psychiatrist in the modern era meant to be a master of processes of image-making. Neuropsychiatry thus found in visual media a crucial aid in addressing the manifold issues surrounding war neurosis, its implications not just for morale and manpower, but for medical authority itself.
