Charcot’s interest in faith healing
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Jean-Martin Charcot believed that "miraculous" cures followed the rules of nature and that the resolution of physical stigmata after pilgrimages to shrines followed the laws of physiology. He acknowledged that some of the patients he had failed to improve at La Salpêtrière had subsequently been cured by the "faith cure" at Lourdes, but he believed their recovery had occurred through "autosuggestion." Although this term is more commonly associated with his collaborator Pierre Janet, it is clearly expressed in Charcot's final pronouncements. Charcot's recognition of the neurological origin of hysteria is central to contemporary ideas about the cause of functional neurological disorders, and even some components of his once derided treatment approach-including mental training, graded exercise, and medical hypnotism-are in vogue.
Author: A. J. Lees
Language: English
Subfield: Neurology
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4403625634