This article was delivered as a lecture at the Talking Pictures
symposium, Toronto, 1987. Since 1980, the work of Nicole
Jolicoeur has used as one of its primary sources the research
undertaken in the 19th century by French neurologist Jean-
Martin Charcot. Her interest springs from the desire to
understand how and in what conditions reality is constructed,
Charcot's research being of particular interest for the concept
of feminine nature based on the fusion of certain popular ideas
found in the science, art and religious iconography that it
presented. (French, English summary)