Blanche Wittman

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Wittman
Charcot demonstrates a Blanche Wittman attack in the Salpêtrière lecture hall . Painting by André Brouillet 1887.

Blanche Wittman (* 1859 , † 1913 ) was a famous patient of the French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot , a teacher of Sigmund Freud . Charcot used her to publicly demonstrate the form of hysteria .

biography

Blanche Wittman's life is portrayed in the pseudo-documentary novel The Book of Blanche and Marie by Per Olov Enquist . There it is said that Blanche Wittmann was Marie Curie's laboratory assistant in her "second life" after Charcot's death in 1893 . Working with pitchblende had caused so much radiation damage that both her legs and one arm had to be amputated . However, there is much to suggest that Enquist invented the friendship and collaboration between Marie Curie and Blanche Wittman and also the alleged notes of Blanche from which he quotes. According to the records in the archives of the Marie Curie Institute , Blanche Wittman was never an assistant to Marie Curie. A review of Enquist's novel in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on March 16, 2005 states that “the Blanche's diaries, which are the center of gravity of the novel, never existed”. Blanche Wittman never assisted Marie Curie's experiments with radioactivity and so did not lose her legs and an arm.

The Hanser Verlag originally wrote on its website: “The truth about her [Blanches] second half of life after Charcot's death is told in the novel by Per Olov Enquist.” This claim was later revised by the publisher: “The story of her second half of life after Charcot's death is told the novel by Per Olov Enquist. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See: A Clinical Lesson at the Salpêtrière (English Wikipedia)
  2. ↑ Per Olov Enquist. The book by Blanche and Marie. (No longer available online.) Hanser Verlag, archived from the original on January 3, 2014 ; accessed on August 22, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / specials.hanser.de

Web links

  • Per Olov Enquist. The book by Blanche and Marie. Hanser Verlag, accessed on August 22, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Wittman, Blanche
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French woman, patient of Jean-Martin Charcot, who publicly demonstrated the formation of hysteria on her
DATE OF BIRTH 1859
DATE OF DEATH 1913