Hysteria in Performance.

This article reviews *Hysteria in Performance*, an interdisciplinary book by Jenn Cole that examines the treatment and representation of female hysteria patients at Paris’s Salpêtrière hospital under neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. The book explores how these women were compelled to perform for medical and public audiences, highlighting the intersections of misogynistic institutional violence, unethical spectatorship, and patient resistance. Cole contextualizes archival medical records with late nineteenth-century performance genres and analyzes visual and vocal representations of hysteria, revealing the complexities of authenticity and performance in medical and cultural settings. The work also connects historical hysteria to contemporary feminist and Indigenous performances, proposing new frameworks for ethical spectatorship and feminist reinterpretation.