Electrified: Jean-Martin Charcot and the Iconography of Light in Hypnotism

This article explores the use of artificial light technologies in hypnotist clinical practice and their broader impact on cognitive habits and aesthetic experiences in the late nineteenth century. Physicians interpreted the shock provoked by high-intensity lights as symptomatic of a neurological condition. Exploring the medical-visual work of Jean- Martin Charcot (1825–1893), the author reveals how these responses were in fact engineered by a carefully curated consultation setting. On the one hand, they mimicked art-historical iconographies such as miracle healings, alchemical experiments, and candle-lit nocturnes; on the other, they relied on a bespoke decorative regime to manage heightened senses. In this reading, light hot-wired aesthetic experience into psychological discourse, and thus projected intense psychogenic powers able to both focus and manipulate the mind.