Paris Journal 2013 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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At the
intersection of the rue Norvins and the Place du Tertre is a brass plaque
mounted on a wall next to a doorway.
The plaque indicates that this is the entrance to the “Commanderie du
Clos Montmartre.” It gives the wrong
URL for the organization’s web site.
The correct URL is www.clos-montmartre.com. The web site
tells us that this organization was created in 1983 by Maurice His, the
“President of the Republic of Montmartre,” with about thirteen or so of his
friends. The founding members wished,
because of their taste for wine, to be officially represent the vineyards of
Montmartre. Some 1901 law enabled the
creation of such a “confrerie vineuse,”
and these folks wanted one for the wines of Paris. Inside the
headquarters is a list of the founding members on a bronze plaque – behind
the bar, of course. Their leader is
called the Grand Master. A list of
successive Grand Masters is also on the interior plaque.
Not far from
this doorway to the Clos Montmartre (above) is one of the ubiquitous History of
Paris markers that we found to be even more interesting. It tells the story of the Folly of Sandrin. In 1774, Sir
Sandrin acquired, in the middle of the village of Montmartre, a property on
which he constructed a folly of a luxurious country home. It was sold to a wine merchant in 1795 and
then transformed into a clinic in 1806 by a Dr. Prost, a specialist in mental
illness. Dr. Prost was a disciple of
Dr. Philippe Pinel (1745-1826), who broke with the tradition of keeping the
mentally ill chained up in asylums.
Instead, Pinel (and Prost) experimented with new treatments that were
more “moral” and effective. They
believed that more gentle treatment that would inspire confidence in the care
being given, rather than add another layer of insanity. Only with this gentler care would the
mentally ill person be able to make the effort needed to improve his/her
state. There were
plenty of patients among the fatigued and depressed artists and writers of
Montmartre. Dr. Esprit Sylvestre
Blanche (1796-1852) took over the establishment in 1820. Along with his spouse, he tried to create a
family atmosphere for the patients.
One of them, Gerard de Nerval, said, “Here began for me what I call
the outpouring of a dream in real life.” Clearly,
doctors like Pinel, Prost, and Blanche paved the way for others like Jean
Martin Charcot (1825-1893), who are better known for their development of
more modern treatments for the mentally ill. Charcot, a
native Parisian, came from a modest background. His dad was a cartwright, or
wheelwright. Because of his success in
his studies, and with the support of his dad, Charcot was able to complete
the intern studies in the Hospitals of Paris, and finished them at the famous
(or infamous) Hôpital Salpetriere, where he started a neurology program. Along the way,
when he was 39, he met and married a rich widow, Augustine Victoire
Durvis. They lived a comfortable life
in a stately home at 217 boulevard Saint Germain, now the home of the Latin
American Institute. We have passed it
many times on our Parisian walks. (One of their
two kids was Jean Baptiste Charcot, a well-known polar explorer who named an
island in Antarctica for his dad the doctor.
Jean Baptiste married a granddaughter of Victor Hugo in 1896.) Among Charcot’s
students were Sigmund Freud, William James, and Georges Gilles de la
Tourette. It was Charcot who gave
Tourette’s syndrome its name, in honor of his student. It is
interesting to note that although we remember Charcot mostly for his work on
hysteria, he considered himself to be a neurologist and not a
psychiatrist. He also argued strongly
against the widely accepted notion that hysteria was rarely found in men. Charcot was
very upset that this prejudice caused many men to be misdiagnosed. He felt that hysteria could occur in the
most masculine of soldiers, and he thought that it was a condition that could
be caused by trauma. Thus, he was a
pioneer in the concept of diagnosing post-traumatic syndrome. One of
Charcot’s greatest accomplishments was that he was the first to describe
multiple sclerosis. He named it,
too. And he did important studies on
Parkinson’s disease. Tom wrote about
Charcot in his book, The
Ivory Leg in the Ebony Cabinet:
Madness, Race and Gender in Victorian America (University of
Massachusetts Press, 2001). He calls
Charcot “a towering figure” whose influence on William James, one of the
leading American philosophers of the 19th century (and
psychologist and physician), was significant. I’ll have to
remember to ask my nephew-in-law who is a neurological scientist what he
thinks of Charcot. Speaking of
family, I’m delighted that one of my nieces is taking up the study of French
in high school, and that she (and hopefully her mom) will be coming to visit
us in Paris next year. Tom and I both
firmly believe that it is important to use the foreign language you learn
while you are still young. |
Thursday, August 29, 2013
“La
Delivrance,” a stained glass window in the church
of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre. Note
the broken chain. Below, more scenes
from the interior of this church.
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