Les suites institutionnelles de Mai 1968 à l’internat de l’hôpital psychiatrique de Cadillac : l’ambiance et les personnes

Abstract

The author relates his arrival and work as an intern at the psychiatric hospital in Cadillac (France) from the end of 1969. The ‘internat’, i.e. the place where some doctors lived in the institution, was strongly in favor of antipsychiatric theories, especially since the May 1968 Revolution in France, which challenged the traditional political and social values of the country. Appointed to work in the Special Service for Difficult Individuals (SSMD), a ‘prison’ structure for the care of mentally dangerous male patients, the author found himself being criticized by other interns in psychiatry for fitting in well in this closely guarded department and for his research work on the screening and organic exploration of patients with karyotype 47, XYY. The author paints an anonymous portrait of the physical and psychological characteristics of his internat colleagues, some of whom suffered from severe problems of anxiety and addiction. He gives an overview of the institutional atmosphere that reigned at the internat in the early 1970s. The 10years he spent at the SSMD were a constant source of fascination for him and led to his vocation for forensic psychiatry and the criminal sciences.