I woke up early this morning to take my sick, sick cat to the vet, and in my dawn-stricken haze, I found this article. I could almost hear the headline being announced on an evening news show preview, followed by the phrase, "and more, tonight at 7." The words 'mass hysteria' pack quite the punch; I feel as if every news headline in the past 10 years has been leading up to this pivotal news report. No, our country is not under nuclear attack, we have not yet run out of food and water, but MASS HYSTERIA is creeping upon the youths of this country, and soon enough, MASS HYSTERIA will sweep the nation.
HYSTERIA WILL SWEEP THE MASSES.
It might be hyperbolic, but it makes for a good story, no? The whole situation reminds me of Jean-Martin Charcot’s P’lconographie photographique de La Salpetriere.
Women in a 'teaching hospital' react to hysteria hypnosis treatment.
As explained in the wikipedia articles linked above, La Salpetriere was a 'teaching hospital' in which medical students experimented on patients and also watched/studied different medical treatments on live patients. In addition to the usual medical undergraduate visitors, Jean-Martin Charcot, the 'founder of neurology,' let the general public bare witness to his treatments of female hysteria. Visitors would walk through the treatment center as if it was a museum, gawking at Charcot's so-called 'crazy' female patients. It was later speculated that many of these 'patients' were really hired actresses, but who knows? If MASS HYSTERIA is a contagious affliction, who's to say that these women did not actually experienced symptoms of temporary insanity?
We all have our temporary fits of madness, and throughout history, people with vaginas seem to be blamed more for this. What is it about our gender that makes us crazy, or rather, makes others think we are more crazy than our male counterparts? I'd like to think that we are simply (and generally) more expressive with our emotions and creativity, which makes us better actors, as well. It's all about acting, isn't it? Why not put on a show?
Diane Arbus created and captured many cookie characters through her photography, many of them women. Were they actors or characters?
But of course, Dr. Sigmund Freud was/is at the head of this psychological movement. Offensive as it can be, I love Freudian art. Salvador Dali explored Freud's dream studies.
“Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening” (1944), Salvador Dali. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid. ©Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
The Apotheosis of the Dollar, Dali.
I dig Surrealism because it doesn't have to make sense, and lately, life has felt more like a dream than reality (in both good and bad ways). The paintings are just a culmination of signs and symbols that are not normally associated with one another, but in dream-world, they make sense...or maybe I'm just another victim of HYSTERIA.
Some of the places, people, animals and beings that exist in dreams keep you wishing you were still dreaming throughout the day...
"Instead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete and classic as the works of museums." Salvador Dali
