Psychiatry Grand Rounds: Reclaimed Hysteria in Contemporary Standup Comedy

Contemporary standup revises perspectives on mental illness and laughter, recalling how hysteria historically pathologized women’s laughter as a form of madness. My argument draws upon Jean-Martin Charcot’s displays of hysterical women in his “Tuesday Lessons” during the nineteenth century to reclaim the hysterical, feminine body through laughter in contemporary standup comedy. Specifically, the audience’s laughter reembodies the symptoms of hysteria, and I identify how comedians such as Taylor Tomlinson, Aminah Imani, Rebecca O’Neal, and Cristela Alonzo use these postconfessional strategies to create collective catharsis. Sarah Hagaman, PhD Assistant Professor University of Rochester Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics