Les temps de 1968 : des sources sociophilosophiques aux restructurations anthropologiques — les fonctions de la Psychiatrie

Abstract

We will focus to consider the dimensions before and after the May 1968 event, and not its history; And we will tackle four main themes: 1. The historical and societal context: on the one hand, the difficult years of France from 1960 to 1964 closely related to the events in Algeria and, on the other hand, the project of the University Reform dominated by the selection at the entrance of the University. The three evolutionary phases of events are well known: student crisis, union crisis, political crisis. In the midst of the many interpretations, we will retain especially the positions of L. Ferry and A. Renaut. The movement would be like “a cradle of the new bourgeois society. The various cultural movements are part of a dynamic that is that of individualism” (Tocqueville). 2. The general philosophical sources are thus very precise: the theme of the end more or less of philosophy which claims to be a science. The dissolution of the idea of truth. The end of any reference to the Universal. 3. The problems of Humanism: it is the appearance of anti-humanism and the development of the defeat of thought. The work of A. Finkielkraut develops very well the consequences of these currents in culture, history, sociology, literature and even the clinic with structuralism. It's time for deconstruction and great leaders M. Foucauld, P. Bourdieu, J. Derrida. This is the time of the death of the man and the agony of the subject. 4. The functions of psychiatry and psychopathology. It is in this same period, and especially after 1968, that we will see the development of the action and thought of the great psychiatrists who will focus to construct psychiatry and related sciences on the basis of anthropological structuring. Psychiatry is individualized. The reaction to anti-psychiatry is organized. And the very strong references to the great phenomenological philosophers of France, Germany and Austria contribute to the development of an open and constructive anthropology. The three major dimensions must be taken into account: bodily existence, integrative consciousness, creative freedom. And we know that clinical, therapeutic and institutional areas can benefit from the development of these major currents.