The debate on hysteria.

The debate on hysteria at the "Societe de Neurologie" in 1908 signed the of ficial death certificate for Charcot's hysteria, which even in his day had started to come under attack. The article by Babinski in 1901 had delivered the "coup de grace". The debate paints an astonishing picture of the medic al world of the day, and also of hysteria, which would never again present the spectacular clinical picture seen up to that point Babinski, dominating the debate with his strong personality, prevented a discussion on the meni al basis for hysteria, requested by several participants, in favour of pith iatism, which in his view offered an acceptable definition of hysteria. It is surprising that more was not made of the contradiction in terms in the e xpression "auto-suggestion: and of the fact that Babinski was begging the q uestion when he asserted that it could not be asserted that a patient had b een subject to suggestion! This debate effectively banished hysteria from t he columns of the neurological press, whose pages it had tended to overburd en. it cannot however be blamed for not having made a positive contribution to our understanding of this neurosis which, even today, remains enigmatic . It does our Society credit to have ruled out "for ethical reasons" the hy pothesis of simulation.