Alice Winocour, Augustine

Writer-director Alice Winocour's Augustine is rare film that actually stays close to the known facts. She vividly brings to life the 19th Century story of Augustine, a teenage servant who became the most famous patient of pioneering French neurologist Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot, a mentor to Sigmund Freud. Winocour discusses the historical record and treatment of a malady that prompted "hysterics" to fill hospitals. This condition was attributed exclusively to early female psychiatric patients who were admitted to be "hypnotized" and asked to re-enact their sexual thoughts.

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