Following
the death at York asylum ol a woman belonging to the Quakers, William Tuke founded on 11 May 1796 an establishment lor the insane lor members of the Society of Friends: the Retreat.
Foucault-Psychiatric-Power-1973-74
Marchetti and
A. Salomoni (Paris: Gallimard/Seuil, 1999) pp. 131-136; English translation, Michel Foucault, Abnormal. Lectures at the College de France 7974-7975, English ed. Arnold I. Davidson, trans. Graham Burchell (New York: Picador, 2O03) pp. 141-145.
2. The law ol 16 24 August 1790 made conhnement a police measure by entrusting "to the vigilance and authority ol municipal bodies . . . the responsibility lor avoiding or remedy
ing unlortunate events which could be occasioned by the insane or thefurieux left in lib erty" (Title XI, article 3) in Legislation sur les alienes et les enjants assisles. Recueil des his, decrels et circulaires (1790-1879)(Paris: Ministere de I'Interieur et des Cukes, 1880 ) vol. 1, p. 3. See, M. Foucault, Hisloire de lajolie, p. 443; Madness and Civilisation, pp. 238 239-
3. F. E. Fodere, Traite du delire, vol. 2, p. 252.
4. P. Berthier, Medecine mentale, vol. 1; De I'isolement (Paris: J. B. Bailliere, 1857) p. 10.
5. The principle is stated by Esquirol in his "Memoire sur I'isolement des alienes" (read at
the Institut on 1 October 1852): "The isolation of the insane (sequestration, confinement) consists in withdrawing him Irom all his habits, in separating him from his lamily, his friends, and his servants; in surrounding him with strangers; in changing his whole way of
life" Des maladies mentales considerees sous les rapports medical, hygienique el medico-legal, vol. 2, p. 745-J. P. Falret, "Du traitement general des alienes" (lecture at Salpetriere, 1854) in Des maladies mentales el des asiles d'alienes (Paris: J. B. Bailliere, 1864) pp. 677-699, see p. 685 sq. ;J. Guislain, Traitesur les phrenopathies, p. 409;J-M. Dupuy, Qulquesconsiderations surla
Jolie. Visite au Castel d'Andorle, etablissemcnl destine aux alienes de la classe riche (Pengueux: Dupont, 1848) pp. 7-8.
6. Francois Leuret states that "whenever one can, one should impose silence on the patient on the subject ol his delirium and occupy him with something else" Du traitement moral de la
Jolie, op. cit. , p. 120. See also his "Memoire sur la revulsion morale dans le traitement de la folie" in Memoires de I'Academic royale de medecine, 1841, p. 658. However, it is J. P. Falret who, in a faithful summary ol Esquirol's conceptions, states the principle most explicitly in an unpublished manuscript: "Isolation is obviously of prime importance . . . But, once the patient has been withdrawn from external influences, should he be left to himself without seeking to destroy the lixity of his unhealthy preoccupations? Obviously not. Not content with having removed the causes which may foment it, one must combat the delir- ium itself, and to this end experience recognizes no more ellective means than, for some, fixing their attention on objects most likely to fascinate them, and, lor others, diverting them from their hxed ideas, distracting them from their preoccupations by constantly pre senting them with objects loreign to their delirium, and by completely directing their attention on every kind ol occupation, so that it is impossible lor them to think of the subject ol their illness. " Quoted by G. Daumezon and P. Koechlin, "La psychotherapie institutionelle
5 December 7973 117
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PSYCHIATRIC POWER
7.
Iranc. aise contemporaine" AnnaisPortugueses de psiquialria, vol. 4, no. 4, 1952, p. 27/l. See also, J. P. Falret, Des maladies menlales el des asiles d'alienes, p. 687.
"The moral cause of insanity often exists in the bosom of the lamily, and gets its source from sorrows, domestic disputes, setbacks, etcetera (. . . ) the lirst shock to the intellectual
and moral faculties olten takes place in the insane person's own home, amongst his acquaintances, his relatives, and his friends. " J. E. D. Esquirol, Des passions, considerees comme causes, symplomes el moyens curatifs de /'alienation mentale, Paris Medical Thesis no. 574 (Paris: Didot Jeune. 1805), p. 43. SeeJ. Fournet, "Le traitement moral de l'alienation mentale, soit morale, a son principe et son modele dans la famille" (Report read to the Societe medicale d'emulation, 4 March 1854): "A good number ol the insane find in what we call the family
not only the conditions which irritate, aggravate and precipitate these kinds ol alfections, but in virtue ol this, the conditions which give birth to them" Annales medico-psychologiques, 2,KI series, vol. 6, October 1854, pp. 523 524; and A. Brierre de Boismont, "De l'utilite de
la vie de lamille dans le traitement de l'alienation mentale, et plus speciaiement de ses lormes tristes" (Report read to the Academic des sciences, 21 August 1865) Annales medico- psychologiques, 4th series, vol. 7, 1866 (Paris: Martinet, 1866), pp. 40 68.
8. J. E. D. Esquirol, "De la lolie" in Des maladies mentales, vol. 1, p. 120; English translation, J. E. D. Esquirol, Mental Maladies. A Treatise on Insanity, trans. E. K. Hunt (New York and London: Hafner, 1965) p. 74: "The insane man becomes timid and suspicious. He fears
every one that he approaches; and his suspicions extend to those who were most dear to him. The conviction that every one is endeavouring to torment and slander him, to render him miserable, and to ruin him, in body and estate, puts the finishing stroke to this moral perversion. Hence that symptomatic suspicion, which olten grows up without motive. "
9. In 1849, Pierre Berthier (1830 1877) became intern under his uncle, Henri Girard de Cailleux, head doctor and director ol the Auxerre mental asylum. Alter the defense ol his thesis, "De la nature de l'alienation mentale d'apres ses causes el son traitement," at Montpellier in 1857, Berthier returned to Auxerre lor two years belore his appointment as head doctor at Bourg (Ain), before becoming resident doctor at Bicetre in 1865.
10. P. Berthier, Medecine mentale, vol. 1, Observation C, p. 25.
11. Ibid. Observation D, p. 25.
12. Ibid. Obscn'ation B: "M. G. , sullering lrom acute melancholy ( . . . ) arrives in the most unlortunate state (. . . ). After some months of treatment, and not without many ellorls, improvement arrives ( . . . ) . In spile ol the express prohibition of the doctor director, the patient sees his son; he breaks a glass window pane and throws himsell through the opening he has made, with the intention ol joining him. From that moment (. . . ) the hal lucinations reappear with greater intensity, sleep vanishes, the delirium increases; and the patient's situation constantly gets worse" pp. 24-25.
13. In Hisloirc de la folie, pp. 517 519, this principle was considered under the heading "Mirror Recognition"; Madness and Cwili^ation, pp. 262 265.
14. "In a ground floor building, at any moment and without a sound he can arrive close to the patients and servants. " J. E. D. Esquirol, Des elablissements consacres aux alienes en France, p. 36; reprinted in Des maladies mentales, vol. 2, p. 426.
15. P. Pinel, Traile medico-philosophique sur l'alienation mentale, on la Manic, section II, ? xxn: "Habilite dans l'art de diriger les alienes, en paraissant se preter a leurs idees imaginaires," pp. 9 3 9 4 ; A Treatise on Insanity, Section II, "The propriety of appearing to assent to the absurd propositions and fanciful ideas of maniacs" pp. 9 6 97. In lact, Pinel says: "Three insane persons, each ol whom believed himsell to be a king, and each ol whom took the title Louis XVI, quarreled one day over the prerogatives ol royalty, and defended them somewhat too energetically. The keeper approached one ol them, and drawing him aside, asked: 'Why do you argue with these men who are evidently mad? Doesn't everyone know that you should be recognized as Louis XVI? ' Flattered by this homage, the madman immediately with drew, glancing at the others with a disdainlul hauteur. The same trick succeeded with a second, and thus it was that in an instant t here remained no trace ol the dispute. " This pas sage is quoted, with a somewhat dillerent commentary, in Histoire de lajolie, pp. 517 518; Madness and Civilisation, pp. 262 263.
16. J. E. D. Esquirol, "De la folie" in Des maladies mentales, vol. 1, p. 124; Mental Maladies. A Treatise on Insanity, pp. 75 76. Evoking the "strongest objection that can be urged against
? establishments devoted to this kind of treatment," Esquirol counters that "the frightful effects that may result from mingling with companions in misfortune" are compensated for by a cohabitation that "does not injure them,--that it is not an obstacle to a cure--that it is a valuable means of treatment, because it obliges the insane to reflect upon their condition ( . . . ) to occupy their thoughts with what is going on around them,--to forget themselves, as it were, which is, in itself, a means ol cure. " Falret also claims that the asylum makes it possible "to prompt reflection on oneself through the contrast between everything around the patient and his only family circle. " J. P. Falret, "Du traitement general des alienes" (1854) <<n Des maladies mentales el des asiles d'alienes, p. 687.
17. Histoire de la folie evokes the "almost arithmetical obviousness of punishment" p. 521; Madness and Civilisation, p. 267.
18. The roots of the principle of no restraintare found in the reforms undertaken by the Englishmen W Tuke, J. Haslam, and E. Charlesworth, and the Irishman J. Conolly.
Following the death at York asylum ol a woman belonging to the Quakers, William Tuke founded on 11 May 1796 an establishment lor the insane lor members of the Society of Friends: the Retreat. Samuel Hike (1784 1857), William's grandson, published Description of the Retreat, an Institution near York jor Insane Persons oj the Society of Friends (York: W Alexander, 1813). See, R. Semalaigne, Alienistes et Philanthropes: les Pinel et les Tuke (Paris: Steinheil, 1912); M. Foucault, Histoire de la folie, pp. 484 487, 492 496, 501-511, Madness and Civilisation, pp. 243 255 (pages 484 501 ol the French edition are omitted Irom the English translation); John Haslam, apothecary at the Bethlehem hospital in London, devoted a work to him: Considerations on the Moral Management of Insane Persons (see also above notes 6 and 13 to the lecture ol 7 November 1973); in 1820, Edward Charlesworth (1783 1853), consultant doctor at the Lincoln Asylum, attacked the coercive methods then much in evidence: Remarks on the Treatment oj the Insane and the Management of Lunatics Asylums (London: Rivington, l825);John Conolly (1794-1866), promoter of no restraint, applied it from 1 June 1839 after his arrival at the Middlesex asylum at Hanwell, near London. He set out his conceptions in, The Construction and GovernmentojLunatics Asylums and Hospitals for the Insane (London: J. Churchill, 1847), and in The Treatment oj the Insane without Mechanical Restraint (London: Smith and Elder, 1856). See also, H. Labatt, An Essay on Use and Abuse of Restraint in the Management of the Insane (London: Hodges and Smith, 1847).
19. Letter ol the Mother Superior of the asylum lor women at Lille to the Mother Superior of the nuns ol Saint Joseph ol Cluny who ministered to the asylum of Saint Yon (Lower Seine)--of which Benedict Augustin Morel (1807-1873) was the head doctor from 23 May 1856--in which she set out the way in she controlled agitated patients: "We set to work . . . taking an agitated woman so as to put her under the supervision of a nun who knew how to impress. " Quoted in B. A. Morel's report, Le Non-Restraint, ou De Vabolition des moyens coercitifs dans le traitement de lajolie (Paris: Masson, i 8 6 0 ) p. 77.
20. An armchair resting on bellows so that "at the slightest movement the insane person is bounced about in every direction, and the unpleasant sensation caused by this movement lorces him to be keep calm. " J. Guislain, Traite sur les phrenopathies, p. 414.
21. Iron handcuffs covered with leather arc recommended by Esquirol as one ol the "many means more gentle than chains," J. E. D. Esquirol, "Des Maisons d'alienes" in Des maladies mentales, vol. 2, p. 533. See also, J. Guislain, Traite sur Valienation mentale et sur les hospices des alienes, vol. 2, book 12, "Institutions for the insane. Means of repression," pp. 271 272.
22. The "strong muffs" are a piece of cloth holding the hands together in front of the body.
23. The straitjacket was invented in 1790 by Guilleret, an upholsterer of Bicetre, and consists of a shirt made of strong cloth or canvas, open at the back, with long sleeves crossing over in Iront and fastened at the back, immobilizing the arms. See, J. Guislain, Traite sur
I'alienation mentale, vol. 2, pp. 269-271; E. Rouhier, De la camisole ou gilet de force (Paris: Pillet, 1871); A. Voisin, "D l'utilite de la camisole de force et des moyens de contention dans
le traitement de la folie" (Communication to the Societe medico psychologiques, 26 July i860) Annales medico-psychologiques, 3rtl series, vol. 6, November i860, pp. 427431; V. Magnan, "Camisole," in Dictionnaire encyclopedique des sciences medicales (Paris: Masson/Asselin, 1880) 1st series, vol. 11, pp. 780 784. Foucault analyses the meaning of its use in Histoire de lafolie, p. 460 (omitted from the English translation).
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24. An instrument of restraint, the wicker casket is a cage, a man's length, in which the patient is laid out on a mattress. It has a lid and is cut oft at the neckline. See, J. Guislain, Traite sur Valienalion mentale, vol. 2, p. 263.
25. The strappado (I'estrapade) hoisted the guilty person, attached by a rope and tied hands and feet, to the top of a bracket, and then let him fall towards the ground several times. On the test of truth in judicial procedure, see Foucault's course at the College de France for 1971-1972, "Penal Theories and Institutions," sixth lecture, and Surveilkr et Punire, pp. 43 46, Discipline and Punish, pp. 39-42.
26. On the public torture and execution of Damien, see Surveilkr et Punir, pp. 9-11 and 36-72; DisciplineandPunish,pp. 3-6and32 69.
27- This is Doctor Gosseret, recounting his having discovered "patients of both sexes fixed to wall by iron chains," quoted by B. A. Morel, Le Non-Restraint, p. 14. Guillaume Ferrus also says that "in some places the unfortunates are fixed to the wall, to which they are attached in an upright position by means of a strap," quoted in R. Semelaigne, Les Pioniers de la psychiatriefrancaise avant et apres Pinel (Paris: Bailliere, 1930) vol. 1, pp. 153-154.
28. F. Leuret, Du traitement moral de lafolie, p. 178.
29. Ibid. p. 179.
30. J. Fournet, "Le traitement moral de Palienation" Annales medico-psychologiques, p. 524. See
also, J. Parigot, Therapeutique naturelle de lafolie. L'air libre et la vie defamille dans la commune de Gheel(Brussels: J. B. Tircher, 1852) p. 13: "We think that the sick man needs the sympa
thy that family life gives birth to right from the start. "
31. J. Fournet, "Le traitement moral de Palienation" pp. 526-527. Joseph Daquin (1732 1815)
was born in Chambery where he was appointed in 1788 to the Incurables where he encountered the conditions imposed on the insane. See J. Daquin, La Philosophic de lajolie,
ou Essaiphilosophique sur le traitement des personnes altaquees defolie (Chambery: Gorin, 1791). A revised and expanded edition appeared in 1804 dedicated to Philippe Pinel: La Philosophic de lafolie, ou Von prouve que cclle maladic doit plutol etre traitee par les secours moraux que les secours physique (Chambery: Cleaz, 1804). See also, J. R. Nylleler, Joseph Daquin und seine "Philosophic de lajolie" (Zurich: Juris, 1961).
32. J. Fournet, "Le traitement moral de Palienation" p. 527. On Mettray, see above note 35 to the lecture of 28 November.
33. Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882), On the Origins of the Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (London: J. Murray, 1859); French translation of the 6 l ' edition, De I'origine des especes au moyen de la selection naturell, ou la Lutte pour I'existence dans la nature, trans. E Barbier (Paris: Reinwald, 1876).
34. Jules Fournet (1811 1885), head of the clinic at the Hotel Dieu, author of, Doctrine organo-psychique de lafolie (Paris: Masson, 1867), and the discourse given at the Congres medico-psychologique in 1878, De I'hereditephysique ou morale (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1880).
35- Jean Pierre Casimir Pinel (1800 1866), nephew of Philippe Pinel, worked in 1829 at
76 rue de Chaillot, a clinic devoted to the treatment ol mental illnesses, before transferring
it in 1844 to Neuilly m 1844, in the old Saint-James folly. See his, Du traitement de Palienation mentale en general, et principalement par les bains tiedes prolonges et les arrosemenh continus d'eau
froide su la tete (Paris: J. B. Bailliere, 1853).
36. Alexandre Brierre de Boismont (1798 1881), after being employed in 1825 as doctor to the
Sainte-Colombe clinic, rue de Picpus, took over management of a clinic at 21 rue Neuvc Saint-Genevieve in 1838, which was transferred in 1859 to Saint Mande, where he died on
25 December 1881. See: "Maison de Sante du Docteur Brierre de Boismont, rue Neuve Sainte-Genevieve, no. 21, pres du Pantheon, Prospectus" Observations medico-legales sur la monomanie homicide (Pans: Mme. Auger Mequignon, 1826--taken from the Revue medicale, October and November 1826); and, Des hallucinations, ou Histoire raisonee des apparitions, des visions, des songes ( P a n s : J . B. Bailliere, 1845).
37. In 1821, Esprit Sylvestre Blanche (1796-1852) took over management of a clinic founded in 1806 in Montmartre by P. A. Prost, then rented, in 1846, the old town mansion ol Princess de Lamballe at Passy. He made himself known through his criticisms of Francois Leuret's application of moral treatment (see below, note 8 to the lecture of 19 December). See,
J. Le Breton, La Maison de sante du docteur Blanche, ses medecins, ses malades (Paris: Vigne, 1937);
? R. Vallery Radot, "La maison de sante du docteur Blanche" La Pres. se medicale,no. 10,
13 March 1943, pp. 131 132.
38. The lecture of 21 February 1973 of Foucault's College de France course "The punitive
society" was devoted to the organization of the world of delinquency. See also Surveillir et
Punir, pp. 254 260 and pp. 261 299; Discipline and Punish, pp. 252-256 and pp. 257-290.
39. In his clinic in the Saint Antoine suburb, which Doctor Pressat handed over to him
in 1847.
40. A. Brierre de Boismont, "De I'utilite de la vie de lamille dans le traitement de l'alienation
mentale" Annales medico-psychologiques, pp. 8-9.
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12 DECEMBER 1973
Constitution of the child as target of psychiatric intervention. ^ A family-asylum Utopia: the Clermont-en-Oise asylum. ^ From psychiatry as "ambiguous master" of reality and truth in proto- psychiatric practices to psychiatry as "agent of intensification " of
reality. ^ Psychiatric power and discourse of truth. ^ The problem of simulation and the insurrection of the hysterics. ^ The question of the birth of psychoanalysis.
I WILL CONTINUE WITH last week's lecture for a while because last week I found a marvelous institution that I was vaguely aware of but did not realize how well it suited me. So I would like to say something about it because it seems to me to show very well this connection between asylum discipline and, let's say, the family model.
Contrary to a rather loose hypothesis, which I have myself maintained, that the asylum was constituted through the extension of the family model, I have tried to show you that the nineteenth century asylum functioned in fact on a model of micro power close to what we can call disciplinary power that functions in a way that is completely heterogeneous to the family. And then I tried to show that the insertion, the joining of the family model to the disciplinary system takes place relatively late in the nineteenth century--I think we can put it around the years i860 to 1880--and it was only then that the family could not
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only become a model in the functioning of psychiatric discipline, but also, and especially, the horizon and object of psychiatric practice.
A time came, albeit late, when psychiatry really was concerned with the family. I have tried to show you that this occurred at the point of intersection of two processes which mutually supported each other: one was the constitution of what could be called the profits of abnormalities or irregularities, and the other was the internal disciplmanzation of the family. There is evidence for both of these processes.
On the one hand, of course, there is the growing extension through out the nineteenth century oi those profitable institutions whose aim is basically to make both abnormality and, at the same time, its correction, costly; let's say, roughly, clinics for children, adults, etcetera. On the other hand, there is the deployment of psychiatric techniques at the heart of the family, their use in family pedagogy. It seems to me that if we look at how this took place, at least in families which could yield a prolit from abnormality, that is to say bourgeois families, [by following] the evolution of the internal pedagogy of these families, we would see how the vigilant family eye, or, if you like, family sovereignty, gradually came to resemble the disciplinary form. The watchful family eye became a psychiatric gaze, or, at any rate, a psycho-pathological, a psychological gaze. Supervision of the child became supervision in the form oi decid ing on the normal and the abnormal; one began to keep an eye on the child's behavior, character, and sexuality, and it is here that we see the emergence of precisely all that psychologization ol the child within the family itself.
It seems to me that both the notions and apparatuses of psychiatric control were gradually imported into the family. With regard to the famous instruments of restraint found in asylums from around 1820 to 1830--binding hands, holding the head up, keeping in an upright position, etcetera--my impression is that, initially established as instru ments of and within asylum discipline, they gradually advance and take root in the family. The control of posture, of gestures, of the way to behave, the control of sexuality, with instruments for preventing masturbation, etcetera, all penetrate the family through a disciplmanzation which develops during the nineteenth century and the effect of which is that, through this disciplmanzation, the child's sexuality finally
? becomes an object of knowledge within the family itsell. And as a result of this the child will become the central target of psychiatric intervention. The child becomes the central target in two senses.
On the one hand, directly, since the institution of profit plugged into psychiatry will effectively ask the family to provide it with the material it needs in order to make its profit. Psychiatry says, more or less: "let your mad little children come to me," or, "you're never too young to be mad," or, "don't wait for the age of majority or adulthood to be mad. " And all of this is translated into the institutions of supervision, detection, training, and child therapy that you see developing at the end of the nineteenth century.
And then, in a second sense, childhood becomes the center, the target of psychiatric intervention indirectly, insofar as what one asks the mad adult about is, precisely, his childhood: let your childhood memories come, and through this you will be psychiatrized. This is more or less what I tried to set out last week.
All this brings me to this institution, which, around the 1860s, displays the asylum-family link up so well. I cannot say it is the first link up, but certainly its most perfect, best adjusted, almost Utopian form. I have found hardly any other examples, in France at least, which are so perlect as this establishment, which constitutes at this time, and early on therefore, a kind of family-asylum Utopia, the meeting point of family sovereignty and asylum discipline. This institution is the coupling ol the Clermont en Oise asylum with the Fitz-James clinic.
At the end ol the eighteenth century, in the neighborhood of Beuvais, there is a small house of confinement, in the classic sense of the term. It is run by Cordelier monks who, in return for an allowance, accept twenty residents either at the request of families or on the basis of lettres de cachet. The house is opened in 1790 and all its fine society is freed. However, obviously, some families are burdened with these dissolute, disorderly, mad people, and so they are then sent to someone at Clermont en Oise who has opened a kind of boarding house. At this time, just as Parisian restaurants were opening up on what was left of the great aristocratic houses broken up as a result of the Emigration, so, in the same way, many ol these boarding houses arose on the ruins of houses of confinement that had been thrown open. So there is a boarding house at Clermont-en-Oise
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in which, under the Revolution, during the Empire, and even at the beginning of the Restoration, there were twenty residents. Then, when the great institutionahzation of psychiatric practice takes place, this boarding house becomes increasingly important and the prefectural administration ol the Oise department and the founder of the boarding house come to an arrangement whereby the department's destitute insane will be sent to the Clermont boarding house m return for a payment by the department. What's more, the agreement is extended to the departments of Seine-et Oise, Seine et Marne, Somme, and l'Aisne, and in 1850 a total of five departments send more than a thousand people to this boarding house, which then simply resembles a multi departmental asylum. 1
At this point the asylum splits, or rather, puts out a sort of pseudopodium, in the form of what is called the "colony. "2 This "colony" is made up of a number ol the asylum's residents with the ability to
[work].
A. Salomoni (Paris: Gallimard/Seuil, 1999) pp. 131-136; English translation, Michel Foucault, Abnormal. Lectures at the College de France 7974-7975, English ed. Arnold I. Davidson, trans. Graham Burchell (New York: Picador, 2O03) pp. 141-145.
2. The law ol 16 24 August 1790 made conhnement a police measure by entrusting "to the vigilance and authority ol municipal bodies . . . the responsibility lor avoiding or remedy
ing unlortunate events which could be occasioned by the insane or thefurieux left in lib erty" (Title XI, article 3) in Legislation sur les alienes et les enjants assisles. Recueil des his, decrels et circulaires (1790-1879)(Paris: Ministere de I'Interieur et des Cukes, 1880 ) vol. 1, p. 3. See, M. Foucault, Hisloire de lajolie, p. 443; Madness and Civilisation, pp. 238 239-
3. F. E. Fodere, Traite du delire, vol. 2, p. 252.
4. P. Berthier, Medecine mentale, vol. 1; De I'isolement (Paris: J. B. Bailliere, 1857) p. 10.
5. The principle is stated by Esquirol in his "Memoire sur I'isolement des alienes" (read at
the Institut on 1 October 1852): "The isolation of the insane (sequestration, confinement) consists in withdrawing him Irom all his habits, in separating him from his lamily, his friends, and his servants; in surrounding him with strangers; in changing his whole way of
life" Des maladies mentales considerees sous les rapports medical, hygienique el medico-legal, vol. 2, p. 745-J. P. Falret, "Du traitement general des alienes" (lecture at Salpetriere, 1854) in Des maladies mentales el des asiles d'alienes (Paris: J. B. Bailliere, 1864) pp. 677-699, see p. 685 sq. ;J. Guislain, Traitesur les phrenopathies, p. 409;J-M. Dupuy, Qulquesconsiderations surla
Jolie. Visite au Castel d'Andorle, etablissemcnl destine aux alienes de la classe riche (Pengueux: Dupont, 1848) pp. 7-8.
6. Francois Leuret states that "whenever one can, one should impose silence on the patient on the subject ol his delirium and occupy him with something else" Du traitement moral de la
Jolie, op. cit. , p. 120. See also his "Memoire sur la revulsion morale dans le traitement de la folie" in Memoires de I'Academic royale de medecine, 1841, p. 658. However, it is J. P. Falret who, in a faithful summary ol Esquirol's conceptions, states the principle most explicitly in an unpublished manuscript: "Isolation is obviously of prime importance . . . But, once the patient has been withdrawn from external influences, should he be left to himself without seeking to destroy the lixity of his unhealthy preoccupations? Obviously not. Not content with having removed the causes which may foment it, one must combat the delir- ium itself, and to this end experience recognizes no more ellective means than, for some, fixing their attention on objects most likely to fascinate them, and, lor others, diverting them from their hxed ideas, distracting them from their preoccupations by constantly pre senting them with objects loreign to their delirium, and by completely directing their attention on every kind ol occupation, so that it is impossible lor them to think of the subject ol their illness. " Quoted by G. Daumezon and P. Koechlin, "La psychotherapie institutionelle
5 December 7973 117
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PSYCHIATRIC POWER
7.
Iranc. aise contemporaine" AnnaisPortugueses de psiquialria, vol. 4, no. 4, 1952, p. 27/l. See also, J. P. Falret, Des maladies menlales el des asiles d'alienes, p. 687.
"The moral cause of insanity often exists in the bosom of the lamily, and gets its source from sorrows, domestic disputes, setbacks, etcetera (. . . ) the lirst shock to the intellectual
and moral faculties olten takes place in the insane person's own home, amongst his acquaintances, his relatives, and his friends. " J. E. D. Esquirol, Des passions, considerees comme causes, symplomes el moyens curatifs de /'alienation mentale, Paris Medical Thesis no. 574 (Paris: Didot Jeune. 1805), p. 43. SeeJ. Fournet, "Le traitement moral de l'alienation mentale, soit morale, a son principe et son modele dans la famille" (Report read to the Societe medicale d'emulation, 4 March 1854): "A good number ol the insane find in what we call the family
not only the conditions which irritate, aggravate and precipitate these kinds ol alfections, but in virtue ol this, the conditions which give birth to them" Annales medico-psychologiques, 2,KI series, vol. 6, October 1854, pp. 523 524; and A. Brierre de Boismont, "De l'utilite de
la vie de lamille dans le traitement de l'alienation mentale, et plus speciaiement de ses lormes tristes" (Report read to the Academic des sciences, 21 August 1865) Annales medico- psychologiques, 4th series, vol. 7, 1866 (Paris: Martinet, 1866), pp. 40 68.
8. J. E. D. Esquirol, "De la lolie" in Des maladies mentales, vol. 1, p. 120; English translation, J. E. D. Esquirol, Mental Maladies. A Treatise on Insanity, trans. E. K. Hunt (New York and London: Hafner, 1965) p. 74: "The insane man becomes timid and suspicious. He fears
every one that he approaches; and his suspicions extend to those who were most dear to him. The conviction that every one is endeavouring to torment and slander him, to render him miserable, and to ruin him, in body and estate, puts the finishing stroke to this moral perversion. Hence that symptomatic suspicion, which olten grows up without motive. "
9. In 1849, Pierre Berthier (1830 1877) became intern under his uncle, Henri Girard de Cailleux, head doctor and director ol the Auxerre mental asylum. Alter the defense ol his thesis, "De la nature de l'alienation mentale d'apres ses causes el son traitement," at Montpellier in 1857, Berthier returned to Auxerre lor two years belore his appointment as head doctor at Bourg (Ain), before becoming resident doctor at Bicetre in 1865.
10. P. Berthier, Medecine mentale, vol. 1, Observation C, p. 25.
11. Ibid. Observation D, p. 25.
12. Ibid. Obscn'ation B: "M. G. , sullering lrom acute melancholy ( . . . ) arrives in the most unlortunate state (. . . ). After some months of treatment, and not without many ellorls, improvement arrives ( . . . ) . In spile ol the express prohibition of the doctor director, the patient sees his son; he breaks a glass window pane and throws himsell through the opening he has made, with the intention ol joining him. From that moment (. . . ) the hal lucinations reappear with greater intensity, sleep vanishes, the delirium increases; and the patient's situation constantly gets worse" pp. 24-25.
13. In Hisloirc de la folie, pp. 517 519, this principle was considered under the heading "Mirror Recognition"; Madness and Cwili^ation, pp. 262 265.
14. "In a ground floor building, at any moment and without a sound he can arrive close to the patients and servants. " J. E. D. Esquirol, Des elablissements consacres aux alienes en France, p. 36; reprinted in Des maladies mentales, vol. 2, p. 426.
15. P. Pinel, Traile medico-philosophique sur l'alienation mentale, on la Manic, section II, ? xxn: "Habilite dans l'art de diriger les alienes, en paraissant se preter a leurs idees imaginaires," pp. 9 3 9 4 ; A Treatise on Insanity, Section II, "The propriety of appearing to assent to the absurd propositions and fanciful ideas of maniacs" pp. 9 6 97. In lact, Pinel says: "Three insane persons, each ol whom believed himsell to be a king, and each ol whom took the title Louis XVI, quarreled one day over the prerogatives ol royalty, and defended them somewhat too energetically. The keeper approached one ol them, and drawing him aside, asked: 'Why do you argue with these men who are evidently mad? Doesn't everyone know that you should be recognized as Louis XVI? ' Flattered by this homage, the madman immediately with drew, glancing at the others with a disdainlul hauteur. The same trick succeeded with a second, and thus it was that in an instant t here remained no trace ol the dispute. " This pas sage is quoted, with a somewhat dillerent commentary, in Histoire de lajolie, pp. 517 518; Madness and Civilisation, pp. 262 263.
16. J. E. D. Esquirol, "De la folie" in Des maladies mentales, vol. 1, p. 124; Mental Maladies. A Treatise on Insanity, pp. 75 76. Evoking the "strongest objection that can be urged against
? establishments devoted to this kind of treatment," Esquirol counters that "the frightful effects that may result from mingling with companions in misfortune" are compensated for by a cohabitation that "does not injure them,--that it is not an obstacle to a cure--that it is a valuable means of treatment, because it obliges the insane to reflect upon their condition ( . . . ) to occupy their thoughts with what is going on around them,--to forget themselves, as it were, which is, in itself, a means ol cure. " Falret also claims that the asylum makes it possible "to prompt reflection on oneself through the contrast between everything around the patient and his only family circle. " J. P. Falret, "Du traitement general des alienes" (1854) <<n Des maladies mentales el des asiles d'alienes, p. 687.
17. Histoire de la folie evokes the "almost arithmetical obviousness of punishment" p. 521; Madness and Civilisation, p. 267.
18. The roots of the principle of no restraintare found in the reforms undertaken by the Englishmen W Tuke, J. Haslam, and E. Charlesworth, and the Irishman J. Conolly.
Following the death at York asylum ol a woman belonging to the Quakers, William Tuke founded on 11 May 1796 an establishment lor the insane lor members of the Society of Friends: the Retreat. Samuel Hike (1784 1857), William's grandson, published Description of the Retreat, an Institution near York jor Insane Persons oj the Society of Friends (York: W Alexander, 1813). See, R. Semalaigne, Alienistes et Philanthropes: les Pinel et les Tuke (Paris: Steinheil, 1912); M. Foucault, Histoire de la folie, pp. 484 487, 492 496, 501-511, Madness and Civilisation, pp. 243 255 (pages 484 501 ol the French edition are omitted Irom the English translation); John Haslam, apothecary at the Bethlehem hospital in London, devoted a work to him: Considerations on the Moral Management of Insane Persons (see also above notes 6 and 13 to the lecture ol 7 November 1973); in 1820, Edward Charlesworth (1783 1853), consultant doctor at the Lincoln Asylum, attacked the coercive methods then much in evidence: Remarks on the Treatment oj the Insane and the Management of Lunatics Asylums (London: Rivington, l825);John Conolly (1794-1866), promoter of no restraint, applied it from 1 June 1839 after his arrival at the Middlesex asylum at Hanwell, near London. He set out his conceptions in, The Construction and GovernmentojLunatics Asylums and Hospitals for the Insane (London: J. Churchill, 1847), and in The Treatment oj the Insane without Mechanical Restraint (London: Smith and Elder, 1856). See also, H. Labatt, An Essay on Use and Abuse of Restraint in the Management of the Insane (London: Hodges and Smith, 1847).
19. Letter ol the Mother Superior of the asylum lor women at Lille to the Mother Superior of the nuns ol Saint Joseph ol Cluny who ministered to the asylum of Saint Yon (Lower Seine)--of which Benedict Augustin Morel (1807-1873) was the head doctor from 23 May 1856--in which she set out the way in she controlled agitated patients: "We set to work . . . taking an agitated woman so as to put her under the supervision of a nun who knew how to impress. " Quoted in B. A. Morel's report, Le Non-Restraint, ou De Vabolition des moyens coercitifs dans le traitement de lajolie (Paris: Masson, i 8 6 0 ) p. 77.
20. An armchair resting on bellows so that "at the slightest movement the insane person is bounced about in every direction, and the unpleasant sensation caused by this movement lorces him to be keep calm. " J. Guislain, Traite sur les phrenopathies, p. 414.
21. Iron handcuffs covered with leather arc recommended by Esquirol as one ol the "many means more gentle than chains," J. E. D. Esquirol, "Des Maisons d'alienes" in Des maladies mentales, vol. 2, p. 533. See also, J. Guislain, Traite sur Valienation mentale et sur les hospices des alienes, vol. 2, book 12, "Institutions for the insane. Means of repression," pp. 271 272.
22. The "strong muffs" are a piece of cloth holding the hands together in front of the body.
23. The straitjacket was invented in 1790 by Guilleret, an upholsterer of Bicetre, and consists of a shirt made of strong cloth or canvas, open at the back, with long sleeves crossing over in Iront and fastened at the back, immobilizing the arms. See, J. Guislain, Traite sur
I'alienation mentale, vol. 2, pp. 269-271; E. Rouhier, De la camisole ou gilet de force (Paris: Pillet, 1871); A. Voisin, "D l'utilite de la camisole de force et des moyens de contention dans
le traitement de la folie" (Communication to the Societe medico psychologiques, 26 July i860) Annales medico-psychologiques, 3rtl series, vol. 6, November i860, pp. 427431; V. Magnan, "Camisole," in Dictionnaire encyclopedique des sciences medicales (Paris: Masson/Asselin, 1880) 1st series, vol. 11, pp. 780 784. Foucault analyses the meaning of its use in Histoire de lafolie, p. 460 (omitted from the English translation).
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24. An instrument of restraint, the wicker casket is a cage, a man's length, in which the patient is laid out on a mattress. It has a lid and is cut oft at the neckline. See, J. Guislain, Traite sur Valienalion mentale, vol. 2, p. 263.
25. The strappado (I'estrapade) hoisted the guilty person, attached by a rope and tied hands and feet, to the top of a bracket, and then let him fall towards the ground several times. On the test of truth in judicial procedure, see Foucault's course at the College de France for 1971-1972, "Penal Theories and Institutions," sixth lecture, and Surveilkr et Punire, pp. 43 46, Discipline and Punish, pp. 39-42.
26. On the public torture and execution of Damien, see Surveilkr et Punir, pp. 9-11 and 36-72; DisciplineandPunish,pp. 3-6and32 69.
27- This is Doctor Gosseret, recounting his having discovered "patients of both sexes fixed to wall by iron chains," quoted by B. A. Morel, Le Non-Restraint, p. 14. Guillaume Ferrus also says that "in some places the unfortunates are fixed to the wall, to which they are attached in an upright position by means of a strap," quoted in R. Semelaigne, Les Pioniers de la psychiatriefrancaise avant et apres Pinel (Paris: Bailliere, 1930) vol. 1, pp. 153-154.
28. F. Leuret, Du traitement moral de lafolie, p. 178.
29. Ibid. p. 179.
30. J. Fournet, "Le traitement moral de Palienation" Annales medico-psychologiques, p. 524. See
also, J. Parigot, Therapeutique naturelle de lafolie. L'air libre et la vie defamille dans la commune de Gheel(Brussels: J. B. Tircher, 1852) p. 13: "We think that the sick man needs the sympa
thy that family life gives birth to right from the start. "
31. J. Fournet, "Le traitement moral de Palienation" pp. 526-527. Joseph Daquin (1732 1815)
was born in Chambery where he was appointed in 1788 to the Incurables where he encountered the conditions imposed on the insane. See J. Daquin, La Philosophic de lajolie,
ou Essaiphilosophique sur le traitement des personnes altaquees defolie (Chambery: Gorin, 1791). A revised and expanded edition appeared in 1804 dedicated to Philippe Pinel: La Philosophic de lafolie, ou Von prouve que cclle maladic doit plutol etre traitee par les secours moraux que les secours physique (Chambery: Cleaz, 1804). See also, J. R. Nylleler, Joseph Daquin und seine "Philosophic de lajolie" (Zurich: Juris, 1961).
32. J. Fournet, "Le traitement moral de Palienation" p. 527. On Mettray, see above note 35 to the lecture of 28 November.
33. Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882), On the Origins of the Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (London: J. Murray, 1859); French translation of the 6 l ' edition, De I'origine des especes au moyen de la selection naturell, ou la Lutte pour I'existence dans la nature, trans. E Barbier (Paris: Reinwald, 1876).
34. Jules Fournet (1811 1885), head of the clinic at the Hotel Dieu, author of, Doctrine organo-psychique de lafolie (Paris: Masson, 1867), and the discourse given at the Congres medico-psychologique in 1878, De I'hereditephysique ou morale (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1880).
35- Jean Pierre Casimir Pinel (1800 1866), nephew of Philippe Pinel, worked in 1829 at
76 rue de Chaillot, a clinic devoted to the treatment ol mental illnesses, before transferring
it in 1844 to Neuilly m 1844, in the old Saint-James folly. See his, Du traitement de Palienation mentale en general, et principalement par les bains tiedes prolonges et les arrosemenh continus d'eau
froide su la tete (Paris: J. B. Bailliere, 1853).
36. Alexandre Brierre de Boismont (1798 1881), after being employed in 1825 as doctor to the
Sainte-Colombe clinic, rue de Picpus, took over management of a clinic at 21 rue Neuvc Saint-Genevieve in 1838, which was transferred in 1859 to Saint Mande, where he died on
25 December 1881. See: "Maison de Sante du Docteur Brierre de Boismont, rue Neuve Sainte-Genevieve, no. 21, pres du Pantheon, Prospectus" Observations medico-legales sur la monomanie homicide (Pans: Mme. Auger Mequignon, 1826--taken from the Revue medicale, October and November 1826); and, Des hallucinations, ou Histoire raisonee des apparitions, des visions, des songes ( P a n s : J . B. Bailliere, 1845).
37. In 1821, Esprit Sylvestre Blanche (1796-1852) took over management of a clinic founded in 1806 in Montmartre by P. A. Prost, then rented, in 1846, the old town mansion ol Princess de Lamballe at Passy. He made himself known through his criticisms of Francois Leuret's application of moral treatment (see below, note 8 to the lecture of 19 December). See,
J. Le Breton, La Maison de sante du docteur Blanche, ses medecins, ses malades (Paris: Vigne, 1937);
? R. Vallery Radot, "La maison de sante du docteur Blanche" La Pres. se medicale,no. 10,
13 March 1943, pp. 131 132.
38. The lecture of 21 February 1973 of Foucault's College de France course "The punitive
society" was devoted to the organization of the world of delinquency. See also Surveillir et
Punir, pp. 254 260 and pp. 261 299; Discipline and Punish, pp. 252-256 and pp. 257-290.
39. In his clinic in the Saint Antoine suburb, which Doctor Pressat handed over to him
in 1847.
40. A. Brierre de Boismont, "De I'utilite de la vie de lamille dans le traitement de l'alienation
mentale" Annales medico-psychologiques, pp. 8-9.
5 December 1973 121
? SIX
12 DECEMBER 1973
Constitution of the child as target of psychiatric intervention. ^ A family-asylum Utopia: the Clermont-en-Oise asylum. ^ From psychiatry as "ambiguous master" of reality and truth in proto- psychiatric practices to psychiatry as "agent of intensification " of
reality. ^ Psychiatric power and discourse of truth. ^ The problem of simulation and the insurrection of the hysterics. ^ The question of the birth of psychoanalysis.
I WILL CONTINUE WITH last week's lecture for a while because last week I found a marvelous institution that I was vaguely aware of but did not realize how well it suited me. So I would like to say something about it because it seems to me to show very well this connection between asylum discipline and, let's say, the family model.
Contrary to a rather loose hypothesis, which I have myself maintained, that the asylum was constituted through the extension of the family model, I have tried to show you that the nineteenth century asylum functioned in fact on a model of micro power close to what we can call disciplinary power that functions in a way that is completely heterogeneous to the family. And then I tried to show that the insertion, the joining of the family model to the disciplinary system takes place relatively late in the nineteenth century--I think we can put it around the years i860 to 1880--and it was only then that the family could not
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only become a model in the functioning of psychiatric discipline, but also, and especially, the horizon and object of psychiatric practice.
A time came, albeit late, when psychiatry really was concerned with the family. I have tried to show you that this occurred at the point of intersection of two processes which mutually supported each other: one was the constitution of what could be called the profits of abnormalities or irregularities, and the other was the internal disciplmanzation of the family. There is evidence for both of these processes.
On the one hand, of course, there is the growing extension through out the nineteenth century oi those profitable institutions whose aim is basically to make both abnormality and, at the same time, its correction, costly; let's say, roughly, clinics for children, adults, etcetera. On the other hand, there is the deployment of psychiatric techniques at the heart of the family, their use in family pedagogy. It seems to me that if we look at how this took place, at least in families which could yield a prolit from abnormality, that is to say bourgeois families, [by following] the evolution of the internal pedagogy of these families, we would see how the vigilant family eye, or, if you like, family sovereignty, gradually came to resemble the disciplinary form. The watchful family eye became a psychiatric gaze, or, at any rate, a psycho-pathological, a psychological gaze. Supervision of the child became supervision in the form oi decid ing on the normal and the abnormal; one began to keep an eye on the child's behavior, character, and sexuality, and it is here that we see the emergence of precisely all that psychologization ol the child within the family itself.
It seems to me that both the notions and apparatuses of psychiatric control were gradually imported into the family. With regard to the famous instruments of restraint found in asylums from around 1820 to 1830--binding hands, holding the head up, keeping in an upright position, etcetera--my impression is that, initially established as instru ments of and within asylum discipline, they gradually advance and take root in the family. The control of posture, of gestures, of the way to behave, the control of sexuality, with instruments for preventing masturbation, etcetera, all penetrate the family through a disciplmanzation which develops during the nineteenth century and the effect of which is that, through this disciplmanzation, the child's sexuality finally
? becomes an object of knowledge within the family itsell. And as a result of this the child will become the central target of psychiatric intervention. The child becomes the central target in two senses.
On the one hand, directly, since the institution of profit plugged into psychiatry will effectively ask the family to provide it with the material it needs in order to make its profit. Psychiatry says, more or less: "let your mad little children come to me," or, "you're never too young to be mad," or, "don't wait for the age of majority or adulthood to be mad. " And all of this is translated into the institutions of supervision, detection, training, and child therapy that you see developing at the end of the nineteenth century.
And then, in a second sense, childhood becomes the center, the target of psychiatric intervention indirectly, insofar as what one asks the mad adult about is, precisely, his childhood: let your childhood memories come, and through this you will be psychiatrized. This is more or less what I tried to set out last week.
All this brings me to this institution, which, around the 1860s, displays the asylum-family link up so well. I cannot say it is the first link up, but certainly its most perfect, best adjusted, almost Utopian form. I have found hardly any other examples, in France at least, which are so perlect as this establishment, which constitutes at this time, and early on therefore, a kind of family-asylum Utopia, the meeting point of family sovereignty and asylum discipline. This institution is the coupling ol the Clermont en Oise asylum with the Fitz-James clinic.
At the end ol the eighteenth century, in the neighborhood of Beuvais, there is a small house of confinement, in the classic sense of the term. It is run by Cordelier monks who, in return for an allowance, accept twenty residents either at the request of families or on the basis of lettres de cachet. The house is opened in 1790 and all its fine society is freed. However, obviously, some families are burdened with these dissolute, disorderly, mad people, and so they are then sent to someone at Clermont en Oise who has opened a kind of boarding house. At this time, just as Parisian restaurants were opening up on what was left of the great aristocratic houses broken up as a result of the Emigration, so, in the same way, many ol these boarding houses arose on the ruins of houses of confinement that had been thrown open. So there is a boarding house at Clermont-en-Oise
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in which, under the Revolution, during the Empire, and even at the beginning of the Restoration, there were twenty residents. Then, when the great institutionahzation of psychiatric practice takes place, this boarding house becomes increasingly important and the prefectural administration ol the Oise department and the founder of the boarding house come to an arrangement whereby the department's destitute insane will be sent to the Clermont boarding house m return for a payment by the department. What's more, the agreement is extended to the departments of Seine-et Oise, Seine et Marne, Somme, and l'Aisne, and in 1850 a total of five departments send more than a thousand people to this boarding house, which then simply resembles a multi departmental asylum. 1
At this point the asylum splits, or rather, puts out a sort of pseudopodium, in the form of what is called the "colony. "2 This "colony" is made up of a number ol the asylum's residents with the ability to
[work].
