Gheel et la Société Médico-Psychologique : relecture d’une controverse

Abstract

The controversy around the village Gheel, also known as the “village of fools”, which occurred between 1860 and 1870 to the Société Médico-Psychologique has been the subject of several analyzes at different periods of history. In these years of political turmoil, corresponding to liberal turn of the Second Empire, the leading names in French alienism compete around the mode of assistance to insane. Since the seventh century, Gheel host the insane throughout Europe, because the place is reputate to healing. From the early nineteenth century, it is subject to many reforms in order to make a real foster family care. Several psychiatrists therefore see it as a plausible alternative to asylums, increasingly overloaded. In France, the debate is particularly important. The study of the debates held in the Société Médico-Psychologique between 1860 and 1865 and published in the major journals of the day French texts reveals major issues for the discipline. These include consolidating its expertise vis-à-vis lawyers and religious in particular. This also echoes the current issues. Indeed, our period saw the emergence of the concept of experiential knowledge of users, which is proposed as a complementary and not competitive concept of medical knowledge, but this notion is contested even within the profession.