CHARCOTS WOMEN - BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE AT THE INTERFACE OF AGING STUDIES AND WOMENS STUDIES

Jean-Martin Charcot's Clinical Lectures on the Diseases of Old Age is recognized as a pioneering, nineteenth-century scientific text on old age. Less acknowledged in gerontology are the elderly women of Pans's Salpetriere Hospital who were Charcot's research subjects. Looking at the feminist research on Charcot, hysteria, and the history of the Sal petriere, and critically examining Charcot's text in light of this res earch, leads to the conclusion that the study of Charcot's women can s trengthen the growing connection between aging studies and women's stu dies.