Philippe Pinel - Publications

Publications

In 1794 Pinel made public his essay 'Memoir on Madness', recently called a fundamental text of modern psychiatry. In it Pinel makes the case for the careful psychological study of individuals over time, points out that insanity isn't always continuous, and calls for more humanitarian asylum practices.

In 1798 Pinel published an authoritative classification of diseases in his Nosographie philosophique ou méthode de l'analyse appliquée à la médecine. Although he is properly considered one of the founders of psychiatry, this book also establishes him as the last great nosologist of the eighteenth century. While the Nosographie appears completely dated today, it was so popular in its time that it went through six editions between its initial publication and 1818. Pinel based his nosology on ideas of William Cullen, employing the same biologically-inspired terminology of 'genera' and 'species' of disorder. Pinel's classification of mental disorder simplified Cullen's 'neuroses' down to four basic types of mental disorder: melancholia, mania (insanity), dementia, and idiotism. Later editions added forms of 'partial insanity' where only that of feelings which seem to be affected rather than reasoning ability.

In his book Traité médico-philosophique sur l'aliénation mentale; ou la manie, published in 1801, Pinel discusses his psychologically oriented approach. This book was translated into English by D. D. Davis as a Treatise on Insanity in 1806, although Davis substituted Pinel's introduction for his own, leaving out among other things Pinel's strong praise for Alexander Crichton. Pinel's book had an enormous influence on both French and Anglo-American psychiatrists during the nineteenth century. He meant by alienation that the patient feels like a stranger (alienus) to the world of the 'sane'. A sympathetic therapist living in that world might be able to journey into the patient's experience, understand the 'alienated', their language, and possibly lead them back into society.

In 1802 Pinel published La Médecine Clinique which was based on his experiences at the Salpêtrière and in which he extended his previous book on classification and disease.

Pinel was elected to the Académie des Sciences in 1804 and was a member of the Académie de Médecine from its founding in 1820. He died in Paris in 1826.