« J’ai pensé qu’il fallait étudier les aliénés » : l’œuvre de Charles Darwin et la médecine mentale

Abstract

ObjectivesTo help position the “evolutionist point of view” in psychopathology and psychiatry, given that the history of the influence of Charles Darwin's (1809–1882) theory of evolution in these areas remains unclear and a source of misunderstandings. MethodsWe propose a historical essay on the relationships between Charles Darwin, his work, and psychiatry and psychopathology. The methodology implemented draws on the historiographic rules of verification and contextualization advocated by Henri Ellenberger, and on Sonu Shamdasani's “historical cubism”. ResultsCharles Darwin himself drew much inspiration from the writings of British psychiatrists of his time, and was directly in contact with some of them, such as James Crichton-Browne (1840–1938), with whom he decisively collaborated for his work on the expression of emotions. However, from the middle of nineteenth century to the beginning of First World War, European psychiatry was mainly influenced by the theory of degeneration, and later – to a lesser extent – by the anthropological evolutionism of Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) and the eugenic movement. Some of the founders of modern psychopathology were later influenced by an evolutionary approach, in particular Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) who, together with Sándor Ferenczi (1873–1933), applied to mental disorders hypotheses that were influenced mainly by the psychological Lamarckism of August Pauly (1850–1914) and the recapitulationism of Ernst Heckel (1834–1919). More recently, John Bowlby (1907–1990), through his theory of attachment, became a precursor of neodarwinian psychopathology. DiscussionDespite appearances, the degeneracy theory, Spencerism, and eugenics all differed markedly from Darwin's thinking, particularly with respect to the complex mechanisms of natural selection. Although more sophisticated, the evolutionary approach according to Freud and Ferenczi was based on biological principles that were challenged by scientific discoveries in the interwar period. Bowlby's continuators, and in particular the somewhat tendentious sociobiology, lost sight of the issue of pre-human biological evolution. ConclusionFinally, the path remains open today for a rational Darwinian approach to human emotions and their vicissitudes.