Download or read book Hysteria, Hypnotism, the Spirits, and Pornography written by Michael R. Finn and published by University of Delaware Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the life and fiction of the French decadent writer Rachilde (pen name of Marguerite Eymery), using her as a case study to examine the impact late nineteenth-century theories about female hysteria, medical hypnotism, mediums, and spiritualism had on the female creative psyche. It is a book about disempowerment, and re-empowerment through writing.