Philippe Pinel

Biography

Wire of a not very fortunate surgeon, it is put in pension at the college of Doctrinary of Lavaur at the Oratoriens. Impregnated Latin and of religion, it receives the minor orders of small the Séminaire then sign the Théologie. It ends up giving up the priesthood and goes to Toulouse where it undertakes scientific studies , of Mathématiques and Médecine.

In 1773, it writes its thesis of medicine in Toulouse, where it can observe the lunatics connected with the Hôpital of the Low register, then it continues its studies with Montpellier. In 1778, arrived at Paris, it saw a time of private lessons of mathematics and translations of medical texts such as the Institutions of medicine practices Cullen and the medical Œuvres of Baglivi. In 1784, it follows for two months the lessons of animal Magnétisme of the disciple of Mesmer, Charles Deslon, the personal doctor of the Count d' Artois. Initially engaged in the revolutionary movement of 1789, it takes its distances with the arrival of the Terreur. Then it finds an employment in the private hospital of the Doctor Belhomme with Charonne, where it becomes acquainted with Cabanis, accustomed Salon of Anne-Catherine Helvétius. In 1793, on August 25th, during the Common insurectionnelle, it is named by decree doctor of the lunatics of Bicêtre, on proposal of Jacques-Guillaume Thouret and Cabanis. It observes there with attention the practices of Jean-Baptiste Pussin, which develops the “moral treatment” of the lunatics, fascinating of account the still intact share of their reason. Pussin was a man of great benevolence towards the patients, endowed with a considerable force and an observant spirit.

Some time after its arrival with Bicêtre, it decides to reform the way of dealing with the patients and asks for the authorization of remove the use of the chains with Bicêtre. In spite of the reserves of the guards, it ends up obtaining the permission of Couthon, which will come in person, whereas it was paralytic, to visit Bicêtre to validate the proposal of Pinel.

In 1795, Pinel is named head doctor of the Salpêtrière where, helped by Pussin, it applies the same reforms as to Bicêtre. It then starts to reform the organization of the hospital.

In 1798, it writes a philosophical Nosographie , which is a classification of the mental diseases, called at the time Vésanie S . Based on the principle of classification of the natural science, of which will profit thereafter from many generations of students, this nosography is inspired in particular by works of Cullen and François Boissier de Sauvages of Lacroix, author of a traditional work entitled Nosologia Methodica where he studied the various madnesses. Pinel thus seems one of the founders of the Nosologie, after Boissier de Sauvages.

In 1801, it writes a médico-philosophical Traité on the mental derangement . Resting on the injured bodies, this classification distinguishes:

simple the Melancholy (is delirious partial)
the Manie (is delirious generalized)
the Démence (generalized intellectual weakening)
the Idiotisme (total abolition of the functions of the understanding)

For Pinel, the mental disorders are due to physiological attacks caused by the emotions. The lunatic is a subject and it is advisable to take into account its past and its difficulties for the installation of therapeutic.

He is elected member of the Academy of Science in 1803. In 1820, it is Jean-Etienne Esquirol which succeeds to him Salpêtrière.

Pinel removed the useless bled S and medications which did nothing but weaken the lunatics. He thought that one could cure the insane ones with encouraging words and, in the cases of are delirious, a skilful reasoning was to reduce the dominant idea.

The Empire granted to Pinel great honors, that the Restauration withdrew to him later. Its ideas, taken up by Esquirol, will into force give rise to the psychiatric regulation of 1838, remained until 1990.

Works

philosophical Nosographie, or method of the analysis applied to medicine (2 volumes, 1798). Text on line: * Report/ratio submitted at the Medical school of Paris, on the private clinic of inoculation, the 29 fructidor, year 7 (1799). Text on line: * Treated médico-philosophical on the mental derangement or the mania (1801) Text on line: * clinical medicine made more precise and more exact by the application of the analysis: collection and result of observations on the acute diseases, made in Salpêtrière (1804). Text on line: * “Letters of Pinel, preceded by a note on its life by its nephew, Dr. Casimir Pinel” in weekly Gazette of medicine and surgery (1859)
Genesis of psychiatry: first psychiatric writings of Philippe Pinel , the Sycamore, Paris, 1981

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