The Seba library treats Pithiatism in 4 passages, across 2 authors (including Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Janet, Pierre).
Pithiatism: the class of hysterical symptoms which can be made to disappear or be reproduced by means of suggestion
Merleau-Ponty’s translator defines pithiatism precisely, situating it within a phenomenological discussion of repression, forgetfulness, and intentional bodily memory in hysteria.
, Phenomenology of Perception, 1962thesis
the old hysteric deliriums are nearly forgotten now; it will perhaps be well to restore them, calling them, if one pleases, pithiatic deliriums: it will enable us better to understand a certain number of rather badly interpreted mental disturbances.
Janet argues for extending the pithiatic category to encompass hysterical deliriums, grounding the concept in an exaggerated suggestibility as the essential mechanism of the hysterical neurosis.
, The Major Symptoms of Hysteria, 1907thesis
why sexuality is not only a symptom, but a highly important one… the visual or auditory side predominates in the picture of the illness, according to the region in which the lesions are situated.
Merleau-Ponty’s analysis of neurotic symptom formation provides the phenomenological context within which pithiatic reversibility is rendered philosophically significant, distinguishing bodily expression from mere organic localization.
, Phenomenology of Perception, 1962supporting
Pithiatism, 161
The index entry confirms pithiatism as a discrete, named concept in Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception, directing the reader to its only substantive appearance.
, Phenomenology of Perception, 1962aside