2024
Une petite hystérie
Une petite hystérie is a three-part performance exploring hysteria—a phenomenon that is medical, social, and cultural in nature. Hysteria only officially disappeared from the registry of mental illnesses at the end of the 20th century. The term is attributed to Hippocrates, who believed it to be a condition caused by a "wandering womb" (from the Greek hystera).
Michel Foucault once remarked that "hysterics are the true fighters of anti-psychiatry." What did he mean by this? Likely, he was pointing to the subversive potential of hysteria, which exposed the weaknesses and hypocrisies of the power systems that invented it. In other words, it dismantled these systems by evading all scientific categorization. Any woman who did not conform to the prevailing social roles could be labeled hysterical.
The performance evokes the stories of three women, including one of the most famous rebels and "hysterics," Ida Bauer (known under the pseudonym Dora). In 1900, Sigmund Freud diagnosed her with so-called "minor hysteria" and unsuccessfully treated her for seven weeks.
Hysteria was often a manifestation of independence, strength, and dissent against the established social order.
