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Liz Turow

@lizturow

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drawrings over at @lizzttoonz

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About last week / Jane Doe

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A Brief History of Mesmerism (Part 1 / 4)

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Before psychiatry was a thing, there was German doctor with a flair for drama who stumbled onto a profound discovery about how minds work.

It was already established that social stress contributed to hysteria, but the medical community did not yet understand how emotions could trigger physical changes in the body.

Franz Mesmer’s invention was inducing trance states—something that had been long practiced in religious settings—in his clinical patients. His method proved to successfully cure hysterical episodes. It just wasn’t due to a physical force called ‘animal magnetism,’ as he thought. It was due to the power of imagination, or what would later be called a placebo effect.

Though Mesmer was ‘debunked,’ the spotlight he put on hysteria and its ability to be ‘cured’ by placebo inspired new fields of study of the mind. Several decades later, James Braid would coin the term ‘hypnosis’ (from the Greek hypnos, “to sleep”) to describe trance induction.

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This is a mini comic I started in @cartoonsbyhilary's class back in 2024. It inspired me to write a whole graphic nonfiction book about hysteria. Follow for more excerpts from my book-in-progress.

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#graphicnonfiction #graphichistory #hysteria #mesmer #mesmerism #psychiatry

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Historically, hysteria was diagnosed in women far more than men. This is not because men didn’t suffer from the same symptoms, but because the label served a social purpose. It was a pejorative term for women who behaved in ways that were seen as problematic or threatening in the male-dominated culture.

An exception illustrates the rule. In 1682, a British physician named Thomas Sydenham wrote that patients with hysteria tended to lack “robustness,” were “sedentary and studious,” and had soft personalities. In other words, the greatest risk factor for hysteria was being effeminate.

By the mid-to-late 1700s, femininity was beginning to function as a sign of education and sophistication, and was considered desirable by European aristocrats. Being “effeminate” was no longer derogatory—the class associations had shifted.

Now that it was ‘okay’ for men to be effeminate, as if on cue, hysteria became a status symbol among men as well as women.

#graphicnonfiction #graphichistory #hysteria

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At the turn of the 20th century, hysteria was really having a moment.

Since 2024, I’ve been researching and drawing a graphic nonfiction book about hysteria. Here is an excerpt. I’ll be sharing a lot more in the coming months!

(Does this format even work? Still figuring it out... send complaints and give a follow @lizzttoonz )

#hysteria #graphicnonfiction #victorianera

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At the turn of the 20th century, hysteria was really having a moment.

Stay tooned @lizzttoonz

#hysteria #graphicnonfiction #victorianera

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Since 2024, I’ve been researching and drawing a graphic nonfiction book about hysteria. Here is an excerpt. I’ll be sharing a lot more in the coming months!

Follow me @lizzttoonz to stay tooned.

#hysteria #graphicnonfiction #graphichistory

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Excerpt from my mini comic “Portal”— musings on #momhood and #midlife.

Made in my first cartooning class, with @cmot15 at @svacontinued
#comics #cartooning

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Cover for my mini comic “Portal”— musings on #momhood and #midlife.

Made in my first cartooning class, with @cmot15 at @svacontinued
#comics #cartooning

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Celebrating 3 years with the one and only @paulavolchok! Lucky to have her 🍀

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Our very own @lizseib bringing the 🪩! #vote #getoutthevote #werenotgoingback @kamalaharris

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🎫🎤 With tools that make it easier for artists to promote their live shows, @spotifyforartists is taking music fans from headphones to half stacks. To spread the word, we helped visualize the new features and partnerships that make it happen. It’s showtime! ✨

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Turn up the AC and crank the volume on💿 L&L Hits Volume 13 💿 link in bio!

Cover art by @janetdelavan 🤌

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