Set as a series of psychoanalytic sessions and presented as part case study and part transcript, Hysterical Correspondence; A play for voices is a fictional correspondence between a hysterical protagonist named Ms. B, her analyst S.E.B. and Dr Y, an academic who specializes in fine art critical and contextual studies. The three voices are indicated by three different fonts and colours. By the end of the article, it becomes clear that all three voices belong to the same woman.
This article questions whether an art practice that functions as a site of performance of hysterical symptoms can be useful as a form of release in the place of bodily symptoms? Can an art practice exist as a symptom of hysteria and if so, can this artwork, which is an act of refusal, be put to good use within feminist research to enable greater understanding of hysteria, and to reduce dismissive rhetoric around the female experience?