{"id":46586,"date":"2019-09-29T15:54:01","date_gmt":"2019-09-29T13:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andanafoto.com\/?p=46586"},"modified":"2024-09-25T00:26:50","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T22:26:50","slug":"origin-of-photography-as-a-tool-in-mental-health-first-part","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andanafoto.com\/en\/origin-of-photography-as-a-tool-in-mental-health-first-part\/","title":{"rendered":"The Origin of Photography as a Tool in Mental Health. Part one"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As a diagnostic tool for understanding mental disorders, different postures, attitudes, and phases (\u2026), this part of the practical exam is perpetuated through photography.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Tom\u00e0s Dolsa i Ricart
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Photography as a Therapeutic Tool in Mental Health\u2014that’s the name of the article written by \u00d3scar Mart\u00ednez Azumendi and published in 2016 for issue n\u00ba 17 of the Atopos magazine. Mental health, community, and culture. He reveals the relationship between photography and psychiatry throughout history, which inspired the article you are reading. Download it here.<\/a>
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Oscar Mart\u00ednez Azumendi, Doctor of Medicine and Surgery, specializing in psychiatry. Chief of the Mental Health Network of Vizcaya. He has served as the director of the Asociaci\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ola de Neuropsiquiatr\u00eda (Spanish Neuropsychiatry Association) journal. He is a member of the editorial board of various publications (Alternative Health International, Science, Discourse, and Mind, Norte de salud mental (Mental Health North), Rehabilitaci\u00f3n psicosocial (Psychosocial Rehabilitation), etc.).<\/span><\/p>\n

He is a professor in various university master’s programs with an extensive background in clinical research and service evaluation. He has a keen interest in the role of photography in the history of psychiatry, having curated exhibitions of a historical nature. He is the creator and author of the blog Images of Psychiatry at \u00a0psiquifotos.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The beginning of photography in pathological environments may have been driven by the pioneer of psychopathology, Jean-Marie Charcot, in the Iconographie Photographique de la Salp\u00eatri\u00e8re.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) worked and taught at the Salp\u00eatri\u00e8re Hospital in Paris, originally a saltpeter factory. The 19th century introduced humanitarian reforms in treating mental disabilities, and La Salp\u00eatri\u00e8re became a psychiatric hospital under Charcot’s administration. His research there attracted students and admirers from Europe, including the young Sigmund Freud.<\/span><\/p>\n

Charcot became famous for his work in neuropathology through a series of lectures on hysteria, the first of which was given in June 1870<\/strong>. His method attempted to correlate observable signs of hysteria in patients with brain lesions discovered through an eventual autopsy. He aimed to provide an objective description of hysteria and epilepsy and their relationships, using the latest technology of the time: photography.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A total of 119 black-and-white images, mostly photolithographs, depict young patients in various stages of hysterical \u00abfits.\u00bb These were complemented by medical records, including respiratory and pulse rates, extremely precise physical descriptions such as head and limb circumference measurements, and even transcriptions of the patients’ delusions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reproduced photographs are labeled according to the stages of the hysterical attack, as identified and named by Charcot:<\/span><\/p>\n

P\u00e9riode \u00e9pileptoide, slide 13<\/em>.
\n<\/span><\/span>Presence of seizures, muscle contractions, or outbursts.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Actitudes pasionales-extase.<\/em> Slide 23.
\n<\/span>Passionate gestures, visible ecstasy, or withdrawal in contemplative or even beatific states.<\/span><\/p>\n

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B\u00e9atitude<\/em>. Slide 38.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Although recognized as powerful tools, cameras have been restricted from psychiatric settings for significant reasons: to protect people’s privacy and to avoid shedding light on the abusive practices that occurred in these early institutions.
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So, the use of photography in psychiatric environments was defined in two ways:<\/span><\/p>\n