Raymond Roussel's Cure with Pierre Janet.

Raymond Roussel (1877-1933) was an eccentric writer whose strange novelistic and theatrical work was launched by the surrealists and is still worshipped by the French intelligentia. While writing his first text at the age of 19 years, he presented a delusional episode marked by the conviction that he was shining like a sun and that he had acquired universal glory. He "fell back to earth" when the book was published and he realized that no one was stopping to gaze at him.

'Fin-de-Siècle' epidemiology of hysteria.

An 'explanatory epidemiology' of disorders labelled 'hysteria' towards the end of the 19th century provides precious information--through the numerous statistical works of the period - about the conceptions of practitioners and the various cultural factors which made this era, in France, 'the golden age' of hysteria. The heyday of hysteria at the end of the century appears to be closely linked to the prestige of Charcot and the promotion of his ideas through the circle of his pupils. The disappearance after his death of hysteria, as he had described it in a defined and systematical manner, is a strong argument for considering it to be a transient mental illness, according to the definition of this concept by Ian Hacking.