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[CFP] Patient·e·s et personnel soignant. Interroger les rapports de pouvoir en psychiatrie au XXe siècle à travers les archives audiovisuelles

Colloque final « Cinéma et (neuro)psychiatrie en Suisse : autour des collections Waldau » (FNS, 2021-2025)27-28 mars 2025, UNIL

Organisation : Mireille Berton & Jessica Schüpbach (Section de cinéma, faculté des lettres, UNIL)

English below

Que disent les archives audiovisuelles en psychiatrie des rapports entre corps médical et patient·e·s et de leur évolution au cours du XXe siècle ? Dans quelle mesure les tensions vécues par les soignant·e·s dans leur contact avec les malades ne contredisent-elles pas certaines idées foucaldiennes autour de la microphysique du pouvoir ? Est-il possible d’envisager l’opération de captation des patient.e.s par l’image photographique ou cinématographique autrement que comme un geste de double sujétion au pouvoir médical et au regard technologique ?

À partir des sources relatives au quotidien de la psychiatrie, ainsi qu’à ses lieux, ses matérialités, ses pratiques et ses savoirs, ce colloque vise à explorer à nouveaux frais les rapports patient·e·s-personnel soignant, de sorte à questionner le paradigme disciplinaire qui a longtemps prévalu dans l’histoire de la psychiatrie, comme dans les études consacrées aux films médicaux (Cartwright 1995). Dans le cas des films de recherche, ces rapports semblent jouer en défaveur des patients, visiblement en situation de vulnérabilité face à des psychiatres qui les manipulent dans un but expérimental ou démonstratif. Toutefois, certains éléments indiquent que ces liens s’avèrent moins univoques qu’on ne le pense : la résistance des malades à performer leurs symptômes ou à montrer leur visage, la difficulté à saisir des mouvements trop rapides, la porosité de la limite qui sépare parfois visuellement les protagonistes de l’histoire de la folie.

L’objectif de cette rencontre consiste, d’une part, à se demander s’il est possible de conceptualiser différemment l’asymétrie psychiatres-patient·e·s – par exemple à travers une micro-analyse des sources attentive aux interactions incarnées – et, d’autre part, à répondre à la question en s’attachant aux enjeux épistémiques, idéologiques et éthiques que recouvrent ces archives et leur étude aujourd’hui.

Collections Waldau (Giorgio Pilleri) – N°9106 (F. T.) – 195 – Capture d’écran tirée d’un film numérisé par la Cinémathèque suisse (Penthaz)

Nous accueillons toute proposition qui aborde les questions de pouvoir, de résistance, de représentation et d’éthique dans l’étude des archives audiovisuelles psychiatriques. Thématiques possibles :

  • Étude comparative des représentations des rapports de pouvoir entre psychiatres et patient·e·s dans les films de recherche et dans les documents cliniques.
  • Stratégies de résistance et d’empowerment mises en œuvre par les patient·e·s face aux pratiques institutionnelles de la psychiatrie.
  • Transformations historiques des approches thérapeutiques et de leur impact sur les relations entre soignants et soignés.
  • Enjeux éthiques et politiques liés à la documentation et à la diffusion des images et des témoignages de patient·e·s psychiatriques.
  • Implications méthodologiques de l’anonymisation des patient·e·s qui tend à les déshumaniser et propositions d’alternatives pour les replacer au centre de notre attention.
  • Place des femmes et des minorités sociales et raciales dans le champ de la psychiatrie.

Une projection de films et une discussion sur le thème « Filmer et projeter la folie » seront proposées aux participant.e.s et au public.

Format et délai : chaque proposition contient un titre, un descriptif de 300 mots et une biographie de 200 mots. Elle peut être rédigée en français ou en anglais et doit être adressée en format Word à l’adresse suivante : mireille.berton@unil.ch avant le 19 mai 2024. Une réponse concernant les propositions retenues sera envoyée au plus tard fin juin.

Lieu : Université de Lausanne (plus de précisions à suivre).

Les frais de déplacement et de séjour sont pris en charge.

Ce colloque est organisé dans le cadre de la recherche financée par le FNS « Cinéma et (neuro)psychiatrie en Suisse : autour des collections Waldau, 1920-1990 » (2021-2025), Collaboration UNIL + Cinémathèque suisse.

Site : https://waldau.hypotheses.org/

Contact : mireille.berton@unil.ch

[CFP] Patients & Medical Staff: Interrogating Power Dynamics in twentieth-century Psychiatry through Audiovisual Archives

Closing Conference “Cinéma et (neuro)psychiatrie en Suisse: autour des collections Waldau” (FNS, 2021-2025)March 26-27, 2025

Organisation: Mireille Berton (Section de cinéma, faculté des lettres, UNIL)

Through an examination of audiovisual archives in psychiatry, this colloquium delves into the evolving dynamics between medical professionals and patients throughout the 20th century. It seeks to explore how the lived experiences of caregivers in their interactions with patients challenge certain Foucauldian notions regarding the microphysics of power.

Drawing from sources of everyday practices, spaces, materiality, and knowledge within psychiatry, this colloquium endeavors to reevaluate the patient-caregiver relationship, thereby questioning the disciplinary paradigm that has long prevailed in psychiatric history and medical film studies (Cartwright 1995). While research films often depict patients in vulnerable positions manipulated by psychiatrists for experimental or demonstrative purposes, nuances suggest a more intricate dynamic: patients’ resistance to perform symptoms, difficulties in capturing rapid movements, and the porous boundaries visually separating protagonists from the narrative of madness.

The objectives of this meeting are twofold: first, to explore the possibility of conceptualizing the asymmetry between psychiatrists and patients differently, perhaps through a micro-analysis of sources attentive to embodied interactions; and second, to address the epistemic, ideological, and ethical implications underlying these archives and their contemporary study.

We welcome all proposals that address issues of power, resistance, representation, and ethics in the study of audiovisual psychiatric archives. Possible themes include the following:

  • Comparative study of the representations of power dynamics between psychiatrists and patients in research films and clinical documents.
  • Exploration of resistance strategies and empowerment implemented by patients in response to institutional psychiatric practices.
  • Examination of historical transformations in therapeutic approaches and their impact on the relationships between caregivers and patients.
  • Ethical and political issues related to the documentation and dissemination of images and testimonies of psychiatric patients.
  • Methodological implications of anonymizing patients, which leads to their dehumanization, and proposals for alternatives to put them back at the center of our attention.
  • Role of women and social and racial minorities in the field of psychiatry.

A film screening and discussion on the theme “Filming and Projecting Madness” will be offered to participants and the public.

Format and Deadline: Each proposal should include a title, a 300-word description, and a 200-word biography. Submissions can be in French or English and must be sent in Word format to mireille.berton@unil.ch by May 19, 2024. Notifications regarding accepted proposals will be sent no later than end of June.

Location: University of Lausanne (details to follow).

Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered.

This Conference is organized as part of research funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation “Cinéma et (neuro)psychiatrie en Suisse: autour des collections Waldau, 1920-1990” (2021-2025), in collaboration between UNIL and the Cinémathèque Suisse.

For more information, please visit https://waldau.hypotheses.org/

Contact: mireille.berton@unil.ch

CFP – Useful Film in (Neuro) Psychiatry Europe, 1900–1950. Update on Current Research

Workshop – University of Lausanne 3-4 March 2022

Since its inception, the cinematograph had many applications in the medical field, and particularly in the fields of psychiatry, neurology and neuropsychiatry (Lorusso & Venturini 2019). With surgeons, neurologists and psychiatrists are at the forefront of using film as a tool for analyzing, storing, archiving, and transmitting knowledge. For a long time, the (neuro) psychiatric films made by doctors as part of their teaching and research have been overshadowed by educational and health films. But since 2000, and especially 2010, scholars from different disciplines are increasingly interested in these practices. Several interdisciplinary teams have conducted research, with the aim of rehabilitating film as a privileged source for both the history of medicine and the history of cinema.

This interest stems partly from discoveries of films thought to be lost, such as the Magnus-Rademaker collection (1909–1940) (Koehler, Lameris & Hielscher 2015; Koehler & Lameris 2016). We can also mention the research in Italy on the Vincenzo Neri collection (Lorusso, Vanone & Venturini 2012; Vanone, Lorusso & Venturini 2015; Venturini & Lorusso 2013); in Germany on the Arthur Simmons and Max Nonne collections (Holdorff 2010, 2012, 2016); in Belgium on the Van Gehuchten collection (Aubert 2002a, 2002b, 2009, 2016); or in Rumania on the G. Marinescu collection (Buda et al. 2009). All these studies, and many others, show the dynamism of a field of research in continuous expansion.

Scholars face several challenges in front of films made by mental health professionals. How to locate objects that are poorly (or not at all) identified? How to understand them in the absence of sufficient information about their production and distribution context? How to work on films that are in poor condition? How to solve problems of access to sensitive data? How to establish productive transdisciplinary collaborations? Indeed, there is still much to be done to build on these documents defying traditional classifications (e.g. the distinction between documentary and fiction) and even escape knowledge altogether, as they “sleep” at the bottom of a closet, in a hospital, a bunker or the cellar of private owners.

Such investigations involve observing the contexts in which the film medium is used. But also, how scientific practices, observation protocols and discursive logics discipline-specific shape the medium and the uses of film. If the film is embedded in a preexisting framework that it modifies, it is itself also transformed in return by its environment of use. For this reason, it would be essential to question the consensus on the epistemic value of the “medical gaze” as mediated by film.

Focusing on the study of films shown in medical institutions, in lecture halls and at scientific conferences, this workshop has several goals: to map the state of research on works devoted to useful films in the field of neurology, psychiatry and neuropsychiatry, in Europe between 1900 and 1950; to highlight investigations on poorly known or unknown film collections; to serve as a starting point for one to two publications (journal issues). The main purpose is thus to increase our knowledge on practices that have long been considered “marginal” both in the medical humanities and in the history of cinema (and the media

We seek papers that may provide some answers to one or other of these questions:

  • In which context (historical, institutional, scientific, etc.) do doctors appropriated the filmic medium?
  • What are their needs and expectations regarding film?
  • What are their explicit and implicit goals?
  • What conception(s) of cinema underlie(s) the use of the moving image?
  • What formal elements of the technology are considered productive or counterproductive?
  • Which criteria lead doctors to emphasize certain technical properties of the medium to the expense of others?
  • Which issues are raised by the films in the medical community?
  • How are the films distributed and watched?
Film reel, Waldau collections, Cinémathèque suisse (picture by MB)

Contributions can include but are not limited to the following topics:

  • Study of specific film collections, or other related media as film operates in conjunction with other visual media (Lorusso, Venturini 2019)
  • Methodological issues raised by the examination of such sources, including issues related to their preservation and storage
  • Theoretical questions, as long as they are supported by a case study
  • Investigation of institutional or personal synergies on a European scale (Switzerland, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Great Britain, etc.), given the intense circulation of medical expertise during the twentieth century

Scientific committee: Mireille Berton, Christian Bonah, Peter Koehler, Lorenzo Lorusso, Simone Venturini

Proposals submission

  • Abstract submission deadline: November 15, 2021
  • Ideally, each abstract should articulate: 1) an issue or research question to be discussed, 2) a source-based case study 3) a methodological or critical framework used, and 4) expected findings or conclusions
  • Decisions will be communicated to the authors by November 30, 2021
  • Title and abstract (400 words max.), and a short bio (200 words max.) should be submitted in Word format to Mireille.Berton@unil.ch 

Practical info

  • Language: English
  • Location: University of Lausanne, Dorigny campus, Switzerland
  • Expenses covered: one night’s accommodation, meals, travel within Europe
  • No payment from the participants will be required

Timeline

  • November 15, 2021: application deadline
  • November 30, 2021: notification of acceptance
  • February 1, 2022: submission of a long abstract (500-600 words)
  • March 3-4, 2022: workshop
  • September 1, 2022: submission of the articles for publication

Bibliography

AUBERT, Geneviève (2016), “Cinema and Neuroscience: Development and Application of Cinematography in the Field of Neurosciences”, Journal of History of Neurosciences, Vol. 25, Nr. 1, 1–2.

AUBERT, Geneviève (2009), “Neurological Illustration: From Photography to Cinematography”, Handbook of Clinical Neurology, Nr. 95, 289–302.

AUBERT, Geneviève (2002a), “Arthur Van Gehuchten Takes Neurology to the Movies”, Neurology, Vol. 59, Nr. 10 (November 26), 1612–1618.

AUBERT, Geneviève (2002b), “From Photography to Cinematography: Recording Movement and Gait in a Neurological Context”, Journal of the History of Neuroscences, Nr. 11, 248–257.

Buda O., Arsene D., Ceausu M., Dermengiu D. & Curca G. C. (2009), “Georges Marinesco and the Early Research in Neuropathology”, Neurology, Vol. 72, Nr. 1 (January 6), 88–91.

CURTIS, Scott (2016), “Dissecting the Medical Training Film”, in Marta Braun, Charlie Keil, Rob King, Paul Moore & Louis Pelletier (ed.), Beyond the Screen. Institutions, Networks and Publics of Early Cinema, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 161–167.

CURTIS, Scott (2015), The Shape of Spectatorship. Art, Science, and Early Cinema in Germany, New York, Columbia University Press.

HOLDORFF, Bernd (2016), “Arthur Simons (1877-1942) and Tonic Neck Reflexes With Hemiplegic ‘Mitbewegungen’ (Associated Reactions): Cinematography From 1916-1919”, Journal of History of Neurosciences, Vol. 25, Nr. 1, 63–71.

HOLDORFF, Bernd (2012), “Arthur Simons (1877-1942) über tonische Halsreflexe beim Hemiplegiker mit Demonstration seines Film (mit Fällen aus den Jahren 1916-1919)”, Der Nervenartz, Nr. 83, 514–520.

HOLDORFF, Bernd (2010), “Max Nonne und die Kriegsneurose: Mit Filmdarstellung der Kriegszitterer vor und nach Hypnose von Max Nonne/Hamburg (1918). Zur Erinnerung an Max Nonnes 50. Todestag”, Schriftenreihe der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Nervenheilkunde, Nr. 16, 197–208.

LORUSSO, Lorenzo & VENTURINI, Simone (2020), “Cinema and Neurology: From History to Therapy”, dans Bruno Colombo (ed.), Brain and Art. From Æsthetics to Therapeutics, Cham/CH, Springer, 95–120.

LORUSSO, Lorenzo, VANONE, Federico & VENTURINI, Simone (2012), “L’arrivo e le sue tracce: la collezione Vincenzo Neri”, Immagine. Note di storia del cinema, Nr. 6 (July-August), 32–54.

KOEHLER, Peter J., LAMERIS, Bregt & HIELSCHER, Eva (2016), “Neurocinematography in Pre-World War II Netherlands: The Magnus-Rademaker Collection”, Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, Vol. 25, Nr. 1, 84–101.

KOEHLER, Peter, J. & LAMERIS, Bregt (2016), “The Magnus-Rademaker Scientific Film Collection: Ethical Issues on Animal Experimentation (1908-1940)”, Journal of History of Neurosciences, Vol. 25, Nr. 1, 102–121.

VENTURINI, Simone & LORUSSO, Lorenzo (2013), “Vincenzo Neri: Anatomy of a Finding”, Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis, Vol. 16, Nr. 1, 112–116.

Neuropatologia (Camillo Negro) 1915 – Museo del cinema