Le concept d’automatisme à l’épreuve de la filiation. De Charles Richet à Pierre Janet

Abstract

In 1885, the philosopher Théodule Ribot and the physiologist Charles Richet founded the Society of physiological psychology with the objective of studying the psychic phenomena. The two men had numerous contacts in France and abroad hoping to interest French scientists in a subject that was still widely neglected. Favourably welcomed, Pierre Janet, a young professor of philosophy working in Le Havre made his first communication about the experiments of hypnosis with “Léonie” in collaboration with Dr Joseph Gibert. Janet mentioned cases of mental suggestion. The scientific community is highly impressed and Charles Richet in particular. Remaining dubious about the nature of these phenomena, Janet holds his judgment and continues to accumulate his observations of general psychology during the following four years. In 1889, he finally gathered all his research in a philosophy thesis, now notoriously knowned as: L’Automatisme psychologique. Throughout this work, Pierre Janet was widely inspired by the thoughts of Théodule Ribot, which quickly became one of his close acquaintances. Above all, he abundantly quotes the original work of Charles Richet, using books extracts from L’Intelligence de l’homme as well as articles from Revue Philosophique, which deals with the concept of automatism. In this respect, Pierre Janet can be historically regarded as the renowned successor of Charles Richet. Despite their initial and common understanding, they undeniably moved away from each other due to subtle differences regarding the interpretation of the psychic phenomena.