affections vaporeuses = vaporous ailments – referring to air transmitted diseases such as hysteria
‘For Pomme conditions of suffering, convulsion and paralysis are all caused by a hardening of fibres related to a dryness of the body.’ – Citation and Distortion: Pierre Pomme,Voltaire and the Crafting of a Medical Reputation
The term ‘vapors’ was used to describe sudden behaviour irregularities as well as mental illnesses. It was particularly ascribed to women. These were often given a
The first paper to root these ailments to bodily disease
‘His work contributes to a new construction of knowledge through its affirmation that hysteric maladies are physiological and rooted in the body. The past denomination of demons is rejected, replaced by a theory on the mechanics of the body’ – regarding Pomme’s Traité des Affections Vaporeuses des Deux Sexes
Appears mentioned in The Birth of the Clinic as a comparison to Bayle’s Nouvelle doctrine des maladies mentales. The two are used to showcase two modes of expression and language use in medical writing. Pomme’s Traité Des Affections Vaporeuses Des Deux Sexes uses mostly simple, illustrative, descriptive terms, while Bayle’s writing resembles what we now recognize as scientifically appropriate language more closely.
The reason I am interested in this is my ongoing research into narratives around the body.
‘To become air…or to empty the speech act of its linguistic content so as to arrive at a pure vapor of the body – a viscous steam, like a speech bubble with nothing inside, just absolute exhalation, a pure sonic drive. ‘ Untying the Tongue, Brandon Labelle [4]
The idea of ‘vapours’ came from some research I did last semester into narratives around beauty and skincare and came upon this:
In Psychology, ‘sublimation’ is also a word used by Freud to describe the redirecting of a repressed sexual drive toward a non-sexual aim. [3]
‘from a therapeutic point of view, successful psychoanalytic treatment ideally aims at sublimation,
inasmuch as sublimation is seen as a necessary condition for full psychic health.’
As I have been considering drawing from mythologies and rituals I found the following paragraph from The Voice as Something More potentially inspiring:
‘The voice of Apollo, likely the most relevant divine voice to the life of common Greek people, was at times configured as breathing through vapors that arise from a chasm in the mountains of Delphi, delivering truths that are transmitted through the voice of priestess. This envisaging of divine voice as breath echoes the Hebrew notion of ruah,’
[1] Foucault, M. (1963). The Birth Of The Clinic. Presses Universitaires de France.
[3] Gemes, K. (2009). Freud and Nietzsche on Sublimation. Journal of Nietzsche Studies, [online] (38), pp.38–59. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20717974.