The Morbid History of Medical Photography

Welcome to a 19th-century Parisian teaching hospital that still exists today: the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, otherwise known as the Salpêtrière.

Thanks to photographer Adrien Tournachon, this was one of the first hospitals to use photography to document patients and their conditions.

It was here that neurologist Guillaume-Benjamin Duchenne conducted his electrotherapy experiments.

He used electrical probes to stimulate facial muscles and induce expressions of fright, delight, and everything in between.

Duchenne believed that by recording and studying facial expressions he could access a person’s soul or inner character.

The study Duchenne published with Tournachon’s photos was so influential that even Charles Darwin reproduced some of them in one of his own publications.

Duchenne received criticism because most of his patients and models were from the lower class.

Researchers still aren’t sure if all of them consented or were fully aware of what they were getting into.

Duchenne’s student, Jean-Martin Charcot, became the hospital’s director in 1862 and is considered the founder of modern neurology. He focused on female hysteria and hypnosis. Charcot delivered weekly “Tuesday Lectures” where female patients were asked to “perform” symptoms of hysteria for the public.

Like Duchenne, Charcot believed that mental illness was evident on the body, especially for women.

The photos of Charcot’s patients can be hard to stomach, but they provided what was thought to be objective documentation of female hysteria.

Charcot’s three-volume “Iconographie Photographique de la Salpêtrière” became foundational in studies of psychology and neurology.

Although Charcot’s work led to further understanding of multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Tourette syndrome, we should never forget that early medicine was rooted in questionable methods, especially when photography was involved.