Salpêtrière

Salpêtrière appears in Simone de Beauvoir’s discussion of sexual initiation as the hospital to which a distressed bridegroom is taken after he cannot consummate his marriage. The episode makes the institution a setting for the medical and social consequences of marital expectations, rather than the subject of a broader account of its history or organization.

Appearance in the Text

The hospital is named in a case quoted from Pierre Janet’s Les obsessions et la psychasthénie. A furious father-in-law brings his son-in-law, described as humble and resigned, to Salpêtrière and demands a medical certificate that would enable him to seek a divorce. The request turns a private difficulty into a family and institutional matter.

The Bridegroom’s Case

The young man explains that he had previously been capable of sexual relations, but that since the wedding a feeling of awkwardness and shame has made success impossible. Janet presents the scene as tragicomic: the father-in-law presses for a medical document, while the bridegroom’s account locates the change in the emotional pressure surrounding marriage. The anecdote does not report whether a certificate was issued or whether a divorce followed.

Narrative and Thematic Significance

Salpêtrière functions here as the destination for an attempted medical resolution of a marital crisis. The episode sits within an argument that sexual initiation can have lasting psychological repercussions and that the solemnity and expectations attached to marriage affect both partners. The hospital’s brief appearance thus connects medical authority with social pressure, without providing further information about its staff, services, or institutional history.