Lecture by Sofia Batko, as part of the exhibition “The Untamable Hand” by Hedwig Houben and l’été culturel 2025.
In Studies on hysteria, Freud and Breuer indicate that the symptom of the hysteric is a form of ‘somatic symbolisation’: her body is the inscription of a language. Hedwig Houben’s work on this “untamable hand” is reminiscent of the somatic symbolisations of Freud’s hysterics, such as Elizabeth von R.’s leg paralysis or Dora’s aphonia. Yet the hysterical symptom is a form of translation whose unconscious stakes bear witness to the specific situation of women at the turn of the twentieth century in the Occident. If it therefore appears as a language, it is because it allows us to say in the body what social conditions prevent us from saying. So it’s hardly surprising that certain feminists in 1970s France claimed the figure of the hysterical woman as their own, because she testifies to the inseparable nature of the psychic and the somatic, the intimate and the political. Using extracts from writers of the decade such as Monique Wittig and Hélène Cixous, this talk will explore the relationship between the body, art and writing from a feminist perspective.
Sofia Batko
Sofia Batko (LEGS) holds a master’s degree in philosophy from Université PSL and a master’s degree in psychoanalysis from Université Paris Cité. She is currently completing a doctorate in gender studies and philosophy at Université Paris 8. Her thesis focuses on the reinvention of love in French feminism in the 1970s, particularly in the literature of Monique Wittig and Hélène Cixous, based on a reading of the teaching of J. Lacan. Her research lies at the intersection of philosophy and psychoanalysis, with a particular interest in issues relating to gender and sexuality. She is the author of the article Quelques pistes pour une relecture féministe de la figure de l’hystérique dans la psychanalyse [Some ideas for a feminist re-reading of the hysterical figure in psychoanalysis], published in the journal Psychologies, gender & society.
The Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Île-de-France – Ministère de la Culture
