Movement as Expression: The Portrayal of Hysteria Through Art

Hysteria as a disease has been around since ancient times. It has been used to argue that women are inferior due to its connections with the female reproductive system. When a common language was still unknown, art was there as a means of expression, able to explain thoughts without the tool of speech. Putting these two together, hysteria, when portrayed through a visual sense, allows for a baseline representation that can be understood by all viewers. Scholars studying the history of hysteria in art, both visual and performative, focus on the bodily takeover of the disease by using examples of l’arc de cercle (circular arch in French), mimicry (resemblance to or imitation of a figure or object), and hysteriform gestures (bodily gestures and actions performed across history constituting hysteria) seen in artworks and performances.