Les psychiatres historiens

Abstract

ObjectivesThe author sets out to show how the history of psychiatry was constructed in France in the 19th and early 20th century, before philosophers, sociologists and professional historians moved into this field of study. At this time, all the work on this theme was published by the alienists themselves. MethodThe most important and significant publications about the history of mental medicine and mental health institutions up to 1950 are collated, presented chronologically and summarized: books especially devoted to these themes, chapters of books, introductions to treatises, collections of medical biographies, articles and archives. The author sets out to establish the broad outlines and the general orientation of all these writings. ResultsPinel called attention to the writings of the physicians in Antiquity as early as 1800. Esquirol described demonomania using historical examples (1814). Leuret translated Hippocrates and theological works for his studies on biblical prophets and Christian mystics (1834). Trélat wrote the first book exclusively devoted to the history of insanity from Antiquity, dividing it into three periods (1839). Calmeil worked on Latin sources, both medical and religious, philosophical and legal for his descriptions of cases of possession, lycanthropy and demonolatry in witchcraft trials, from the 15th to the 18th century in Europe (1845). Following Morel (1860), all the treatises on mental illnesses contain a historical introduction. Between 1880 and 1914, the advent of new clinical entities, such as folie à double forme, neurasthenia or degeneracy, was studied. At the start of the 20th century, the books by Sémelaigne, devoted to the biography and bibliography of French alienists dominated the scene. The history of asylums and institutions was initiated by Esquirol (1818) and studied later by Constans-Lunier-Dumesnil (1874) and by Sérieux (1903). Sérieux worked on archives with Libert. A critical approach to this history begins in France with Henri Ey around 1950. DiscussionThis first history of psychiatry has methodological failings. The periods are not clearly outlined, with the Middle Ages terminating for some authors at the beginning of the 17th century and the Renaissance at the end of the 18th century. The view of the Antiquity is idealistic. A hagiographic perspective prevails over the critical perspective. The quest for forerunners takes precedence over the search for paradigms. The positivist illusion of uninterrupted progress takes precedence over the temporal breaks. Writings and archives are analyzed according to clinical entities described a long time after they were produced. Nevertheless, unpublished or inaccessible sources are brought to light, some texts are translated from Latin into French, exhaustive bibliographies are established, medical authors from Antiquity are popularized, witchcraft is explored for the first time in its medical aspects, and overall, this amounts to the beginnings of a history of asylums. ConclusionThese physicians, first alienists and then psychiatrists, should be considered as the first historians of their discipline, and this can constitute one of the characteristics of this medical specialty and of its relationship with temporality. It raises the question of why their work has been dismissed by most of the researchers who turned their attention to the history of insanity from the 1960s.