John De-Falbe

Radium and the nature of love

issue 21 October 2006

  • The Story of Blanche and Marie

    Per Olov Enquist

    Harvill Secker, pp. 218

For 16 years, from 1878, Blanche Wittman was a patient in the infamous Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, diagnosed by the famous Dr Charcot as a hysteric. Putting Blanche on display in a cataleptic state, Charcot explained to audiences that he hoped to reveal, through her ‘a certain system, a secret code, which … could point the way to the meaning of life’.

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