Article ID: CBB001252266

Certain Madness: Guy de Maupassant and Hypnotism (2011)

unapi

This essay explores the onset of the condition deemed madness in both versions of Guy de Maupassant's horror story The Horla (1886/1887). Madness here characterizes the narrators' belief in an invisible possessor named Horla, a being identifiable through empirical investigations yet resistant to scientific rationalization. More specifically, the twofold narrative blurs the institutional boundaries between science and the supernatural by introducing the creature Horla to an already unstable scientific history of nineteenth-century hypnotism. Through its depictions of conflict between personal affliction and scientific perception, The Horla explores the parameters of science's unthinkable and unimaginable conceptions. Maupassant's dual narrative portrays the fantastic experiences made possible by that which lies beyond science---experiences rationalizable only in terms of madness.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001252266/

Similar Citations

Chapter Finn, Michael R.; (2003)
Retrospective Medicine, Hypnosis, Hysteria and French Literature, 1875-1895 (/isis/citation/CBB000501998/)

Book Susan A. Ashley; (2018)
“Misfits” in Fin-de-Siècle France and Italy: Anatomies of Difference (/isis/citation/CBB632805594/)

Book Andriopoloulos, Stefan; (2008)
Possessed: Hypnotic Crimes, Corporate Fiction, and the Invention of Cinema (/isis/citation/CBB000850341/)

Article Carlos S Alvarado; (2019)
Jules Bernard Luys on magnetic pathology (/isis/citation/CBB875248563/)

Book Höfer, Bernadette; (2009)
Psychosomatic Disorders in Seventeenth-Century French Literature (/isis/citation/CBB001231104/)

Thesis LeBlanc, Andre Robert; (2000)
On hypnosis, simulation, and faith: The problem of post-hypnotic suggestion in France, 1884-1896 (/isis/citation/CBB001562653/)

Article Renaud Evrard; Stéphane Gumpper; Bevis Beauvais; Carlos S. Alvarado; (2021)
"Never sacrifice anything to laboratory work": The "physiological psychology" of Charles Richet (1875–1905) (/isis/citation/CBB615121567/)

Article Plock, Vike Martina; (2010)
Fearful States: The Emergence of Modern Phobias (/isis/citation/CBB001213326/)

Thesis Dodman, Thomas W.; (2011)
Homesick Epoch: Dying of Nostalgia in Post-Revolutionary France (/isis/citation/CBB001567271/)

Book Rigoli, Juan; (2001)
Lire le délire: Aliénisme, rhétorique et littérature en France au XIXe siècle (/isis/citation/CBB000551174/)

Book Rieber, Robert W.; (2006)
The Bifurcation of the Self: The History and Theory of Dissociation and Its Disorders (/isis/citation/CBB000930436/)

Article Williams, Elizabeth A.; (2007)
Neuroses of the Stomach: Eating, Gender, and Psychopathology in French Medicine, 1800--1870 (/isis/citation/CBB000741717/)

Article Ossa-Richardson, Anthony; (2013)
Possession or Insanity? Two Views from the Victorian Lunatic Asylum (/isis/citation/CBB001201306/)

Chapter Lafferton, Emese; (2007)
Murder by Hypnosis? Altered States and the Mental Geography of Science (/isis/citation/CBB000773397/)

Book Laure Murat; (2014)
The Man Who Thought He Was Napoleon: Toward a Political History of Madness (/isis/citation/CBB627143609/)

Authors & Contributors
LeBlanc, Andre Robert
Finn, Michael R.
Alvarado, Carlos S.
Bevis Beauvais
Evrard, Renaud
Deke Dusinberre
Concepts
Mental disorders and diseases
Psychology
Medicine and literature
Hypnosis and hypnotism
Psychiatry
Psychiatric hospitals
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
18th century
17th century
Places
France
England
Italy
Algeria
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment