Chiarugi and Pinel considered: Soul's brain/person's mind

Abstract

Pinel and Chiarugi enter the standard histories of psychiatry under the rubric of “psychiatric reformers.” True enough, but insufficient in terms of the complexity and breadth of their thought. Despite Pinel's fame for the “moral,” i.e. psychological treatment of the mentally ill, previous scholarship on Chiarugi and his work would lead one to expect a richer humanity and warmer personal investment in the vagaries of the mentally ill under Chiarugi's auspices. A careful study of Chiarugi's Della Pazzia and Pinel's Traitesuggest a different portrait. Though conjoined in their humanitarian ideals, these foundational figures in modern psychiatry voiced disparate ideas on the nature, etiology, and treatment of mental disorders, Chiarugi in the context of a biologic or “organicist” theory, Pinel in a psychosocial framework. Their reasoning in support of their opposing perspectives about the centrality of “biologic vs. psychological” determinants and interventions in psychiatry is remarkably congruent with those expressed today. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.