64

Photography and surrealism

65
1he automatic image
Rvolution surraliste (no. ++, March +,::, vith photo-
graphs it vas as a poetic discovery ot automatic expres-
sion more than to make a social scandal (see ligure ,,.
1he six photographs ot Charcots tamous hysterical
patient Augustine (taken trom volume tvo ot Bournville
and Pegnard, Iconographie photographique de la Salptrire,
+:;;;:, vere accompanied by a briet assessment ot con-
tributions by Charcot, Babinski and lreud to the study ot
hysteria. 1he short article concluded vith the surrealists
ovn tresh detnition: Hysteria is not a pathological
phenomenon and may in all respects be considered as
a supreme means ot expression.
34
Hysteria is conceived
as a kind ot emotional attack, as a vorthy torm ot
expression outside literature or illness. 1hese vievs by
Iouis Aragon and Andre Breton directly contradicted
those ot Babinski vho, they note, dared to publish in
+,+, When an emotion is sincere and protound, and
it stirs the human soul, there is no room tor hysteria.
33

lor Babinski, they claimed, hysteria vas a pathological
condition manitested by disturbances vhich in certain
subjects can be reproduced vith complete exactness
and are apt to vanish under the innuence ot persuasion
(counter-suggestion, alone.
36
Against Babinskis dismis-
1he text is translated and
published in Posemont (ed.,,
What is Surrealism, pp. :o+.
Ibid., p. :o.
o Ibid., p. :+.
9 1he littieth Anniversary
ot Hysteria as a double-
page spread published in La
Rvolution surraliste, no. ++,
March +,::. Photographs are
trom Charcots nineteenth-
century experiments at Ia
Salpetrire Hospital in Paris
(see also ligure +,.