ABSTRACT
By the second half of the nineteenth century, hysteria is in its heyday within neurological circles, not least through Jean-Martin Charcot's efforts on the subject. Everything published in the Salpetriere on hysteria during the 1880s and 1890s, takes Charcot's type-hysteria as its reference. Considering the circumstances under which Charcot's encounter with hysteria took place, it is no coincidence that the epileptic fit is allocated a central position in his type-hysteria, the hystero-epilepsy. Paul Richer and Georges Gilles de la Tourette rank as Charcot's most orthodox pupils. Richer's work constitutes a streamlined, systematized reproduction of Charcot's ideas on the major hysterical fit and on the hypnotisms, that is, the hypnotic states that may occur in hysteria. In 1890 Charcot introduced Pierre Janet into the Salpetriere and set up a laboratory for experimental psychology for him. Neurosis and madness, by the way, remain deficiency states which sharply contrasts to Janet's understanding attitude in his clinical work.
