Dr. Charcot hypnotizing an hysteric at Salpêtrière asylum
Book I
JULIE FORETTE: A self-educated woman from Marseilles, journeys to Paris in 1885, determined to become the verbatim recordist for Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot, renowned neurologist and Director of the Salpêtrière Hospital and Asylum. Julie is keen to learn more about the new disease Dr. Charcot has discovered and demonstrates at his eagerly attended lectures—Grand Hysteria.
THE SALPÊTRIÈRE: Shadow city within the city of Paris, both a research hospital and refuge for over five thousand infirmed, demented, and abandoned women. The case of Sabrine Wiess, confined at the Salpêtrière for five years, and regarded as their star hysteric, La Princesse des Hystériques, is assigned to the young medical student, Sigmund Freud.
JEAN-MARTIN CHARCOT: Known as the Napoleon of the Neurosis and like an emperor rules over the vast medical complex known as the Salpêtrière. From all over Europe, doctors of pathology and neurology come to attend his lectures and demonstrations. Patients from every corner of the world, those afflicted with a multitude of neurological afflictions, ask for his diagnosis and cure. Charcot and his brilliant staff have identified a host of neurological diseases, from Parkinson’s to Tourette’s syndrome. His obsession is to find the neurological lesion for the most mysterious of all diseases, Grand Hysteria.
SIGMUND FREUD: Comes to Salpêtrière to study the new science of hypnotism. Julie Forette forms a friendship with the young, visiting intern who introduces her to the altering conscious power of cocaine. Together they pursue the hidden potential of hypnotism and dream interpretation. After Freud receives the baffling case of the star hysteric, Sabrine Weiss, he is encouraged by Julie to experiment with different modes of treatment, including “talking sessions.”
IMPRESSIONISM: The new art emerging in Paris begins to fascinate protagonist, Julie Forette. She forms friendships with Suzanne Valadon, Renoir’s favorite model, and Félix Fénéon, avant-garde art critic. Becoming a modest art collector, she moves within the art milieu, meeting the major Impressionist artists, from Pissarro to Monet to Degas. Especially enamored with the art of Paul Cezanne, she manages to meet the reclusive artist and for a brief time they have an affair. A more passionate relationship ensues with the artist who calls himself the “Peruvian Savage”—Paul Gauguin.
DREAMS: Collecting them becomes part of Julie’s quest for meaning. Haunted by an adolescent dream she cannot fathom, she begins collecting the dreams of others, the one untamable, unforgettable dream that reveals and defines their psyche. Encouraged by Freud to seek the hidden meaning behind dreams, Julie utilizes hypnosis to reach the unconscious desires of Cezanne, Monet, Gauguin and Freud himself.
SABRINE: Salpêtrière's star patient becomes the obsession of Julie Forette and Sigmund Freud, who are determined to reach the origin of Sabrine’s hysterical attacks and cure her amnesia. Their nemesis, Dr. Charcot, insists that hysteria and all psychotic behavior is somatic, physical, in origin. But Julie and Freud reach the conclusion that through talking therapy, hypnosis and dream interpretation all neuroses stem from one source, the mind. Theirs is a battle to reach and release Sabrine from her emotional trauma. A duel of wills ensues between Julie Forette and Dr. Charcot, reaching a climax when Charcot hypnotizes Sabrine to prove to Freud and Julie that their patient is too neurologically impaired to leave his asylum, but a surprising reversal of events brings Sabrine her freedom.