Paris; History, 20th Century; Humans; Psychiatry/history; Congresses as Topic/history; History of psychiatry; History of science; International conferences; Science capitals; Congresses as Topic; Psychiatry; Nursing (all); Medicine (miscellaneous); History
Abstract :
[en] In 1950, the First World Congress of Psychiatry took place in Paris. Gathering more than two thousand people, the event became a stage where many issues were negotiated for the psychiatric discipline in particular but also for the way of doing science of which the international conference was one of the most widespread practices. Between two wars-World War II and the Cold War-defining the international community was complex. Recently awarded a Nobel Prize for Medicine, psychiatry as a discipline negotiated its boundaries between biological and/or social determinants. This boundary work was framed by a narrative that underlined the novelty of the process-the first congress-and the materiality of a congress that also legitimized itself through a particular place, the Sorbonne in Paris.
Disciplines :
History
Author, co-author :
MAJERUS, Benoît ; University of Luxembourg > Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH) > Contemporary European History
External co-authors :
no
Language :
English
Title :
Tensions of a Discipline: The First World Congress of Psychiatry in Paris, between Global Ambitions and Local Practices.
Joris Vanden Driessche, Medical Societies and Scientific Culture in Nineteenth-Century Belgium (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018).
Eva Andersen, “A Republic of Alienists? A Transnational Perspective on Psychiatric Knowledge Circulation across Europe (1843–1925)” (Ph.D. diss., University of Luxembourg, 2021), 74–230.
Jakob Vogel, “Von Der Wissenschafts- zur Wissensgeschichte. Für eine Historisierung der ‘Wissensgesellschaft,’” Geschichte und Gesellschaft 30, no. 4 (October 1, 2004): 639–60.
Anne Rasmussen, “Les Congrès internationaux liés aux Expositions universelles de Paris (1867–1900),” Mil neuf cent. Revue d’histoire intellectuelle (Cahiers Georges Sorel) 7, no. 1 (1989): 23–44, https://doi.org/10.3406/mcm.1989.976
See the project “The Scientific Conference: A Social, Cultural and Political History” in the framework of HERA’s fourth joint research program, “Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe.”
Eric Brian, “Y a-t-il un objet Congrès ? Le cas du Congrès international de statistique (1853–1876),” Mil neuf cent. Revue d’histoire intellectuelle (Cahiers Georges Sorel) 7, no. 1 (1989): 9–22.
Waltraud Ernst, ed., Transnational Psychiatries: Social and Cultural Histories of Psychiatry in Comparative Perspective c.1800–2000 (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2010); Harry Yi-Jui Wu, Mad by the Millions: Mental Disorders and the Early Years of the World Health Organization (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2021).
Andersen, “Republic of Alienists?” (n. 2); Alexandre Klein, “1961. Montréal, capitale mondiale de la psychiatrie,” PSN 20, no. 2 (2022): 33–55.
Henry Ey (1900–1907) was a prominent figure in twentieth-century French psychiatry. He was the author of several influential handbooks (Traité de psychiatrie de l’Encyclopédie médico-chirurgicale. Manuel de psychiatrie...) and played an important role in organizing the professional field. Being quite eclectic in his approach, mixing psychoanalysis with neurological theories, he played a mediating role in the divided French context: Jean-Christophe Coffin, ed., Conceptions de la folie & pratiques de la psychiatrie. Autour d’Henri Ey, Les Cahiers Henri Ey 20–21 (Perpignan: Association pour la Fondation Henri Ey, 2008). I would like to express my gratitude to Catherine Lavielle for bringing these archives to my attention.
Henri Ey, ed., Premier Congrès Mondial de Psychiatrie–VIII–Actes Généraux Du Congrès (Paris: Hermannn & cie, 1952), 131.
Vera Sartorius and Norman Sartorius, “The WPA Celebrates Its 70th Birthday,” World Psychiatry 19, no. 3 (2020): 403–4.
Frédéric Carbonel, “Rouen 1890: Le premier Congrès national de la psychiatrie française,” Etudes Normandes, no. 4 (2005): 29–34.
Robert Doré, Essai d’une bibliographie des congrès internationaux (Paris: É. Champion, 1923), lists eight of them.
Congrès international de médecine mentale, tenu à Paris, du 5 au 10 août 1878 (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1880).
“Avant-Propos,” in Compte-rendu des travaux du 1er Congrès international de psychiatrie, de neurologie, de psychologie et de l’assistance des aliénés tenu à Amsterdam Du 2 à 7 Septembre 1907 (Amsterdam: J.H. de Bussy, 1908), v–vi.
Paul Weindling, “Introduction: Constructing International Health between the Wars,” in International Health Organisations and Movements, 1918–1939, ed. Paul Weindling (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 1–16.
For example, Geneviève Warland and Matthias Middell, “‘Pirenne and Co.’: The Internationalization of Belgian Historical Science, 1880s–1920s,” Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire 90, no. 4 (2012): 1227–48.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 5, preparatory meeting for the meeting of the psychiatric societies, September 18, 1950.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 1, minutes of the meeting of the organizing committee, July 5, 1948.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 1, meeting of the organizing committee, May 4, 1949.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 1, meeting of the organizing committee, July 6, 1949. They were likely referring to the numerous psychiatrists who fled Nazi Germany and Austria and played a crucial role in shaping American psychiatry from the late 1930s onward. Aleksandra Loewenau, “Between Resentment and Aid: German and Austrian Psychiatrist and Neurologist Refugees in Great Britain since 1933,” J. Hist. Neurosci. 25, no. 3 (2016): 348–62.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 3, minutes of the administrative meetings, November 2, 1947.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 1, meeting of the organizing committee, November 30, 1949.
Max Müller, Erinnerungen. Erlebte Psychiatriegeschichte 1920–1960 (Berlin: Springer, 1982), 410.
Henri Ey, ed., “Discours de M. Le Professeur Jean Delay,” in Ey, Premier Congrès Mondial de Psychiatrie–VIII (n. 10), 88.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 3, minutes of the administrative meetings, November 2, 1947.
Henri Ey, ed., “Discours de J.R. Rees,” in Ey, Premier Congrès Mondial de Psychiatrie–VIII (n. 10), 105.
Henri Ey, ed., “Discours de Honorio Delgado,” in Ey, Premier Congrès Mondial de Psychiatrie– VIII (n. 10), 107.
Andersen, “Republic of Alienists?” (n. 2).
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 1, meeting of the organizing committee, November 30, 1949.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 4, letter from Henri Ey to Jürgen Zutt and Aubrey Lewis, August 3, 1950. Jürgen Zutt seems not to have come to the congress after all. Similar answer for Hans Kehrer of the University of Freiburg.
H. Strotzka, “Bericht über den Internationalen Kongreß für Psychiatrie, Paris 1950,” Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift (1946) 101, no. 3 (January 20, 1951): 56.
Müller, Erinnerungen (n. 27), 188.
Henri Ey, ed., “Assemblée Générale du 24 Septembre 1950,” in Ey, Premier Congrès Mondial de Psychiatrie–VIII (n. 10), 139.
H. Heyck and D. Kaiser, “Focus: New Perspectives on Science and the Cold War. Introduction,” Isis 101, no. 2 (June 2010): 362–66.
Nicolas Henckes, “Le nouveau monde de la psychiatrie française. Les psychiatres, l’Etat et la réforme des hôpitaux psychiatriques de l’après-guerre aux années 1970” (Thèse, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 2007), 164–65.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 3, minutes of the administrative meetings, November 2, 1947.
Archives Sainte-Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 7, Journal du 1er Congrès Mondial de Psychiatrie, n°2—20 septembre 1950, p. 8.
Archives Sainte-Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 4, letter from Domenico Pisani to Henri Ey, August 5, 1950.
Archives Sainte-Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 7, Journal du 1er Congrès Mondial de Psychiatrie, n°2—20 septembre 1950, p. 1.
William Walters Sargant, “Indications and Mechanism of Abreaction and Its Relation to the Shock Therapies,” 192–202, and Ugo Cerletti and Henri Ey, “L’électrochoc,” 1–52, both in Premier Congrès Mondial de Psychiatrie–IV–Thérapeutique Biologique–Indications Respectives Des Méthodes de Choc (Paris, 1950).
Sven Follin, “Réflexions méthodologiques sur le thème ‘Génétique et Eugénique,’” in Premier Congrès Mondial de Psychiatrie–VI–Psychiatrie Sociale–Comptes Rendus, ed. Henri Ey (Paris: Hermannn & cie, 1952), 112.
For example, “tutti i Paesi del mondo (non intervennero quelli della Russia e Nazioni satelliti”: C. Rizzo, “Il Congresso Internazionale di Psichiatria Parigi, 19–27 Settembre 1950,” Giornale Di Medicina Militare 97, no. 5 (October 1950): 475.
Ey, “Discours de J.R. Rees” (n. 30), 104.
Rasmussen, “Les Congrès internationaux” (n. 4).
Ey, “Discours de Honorio Delgado” (n. 31), 106.
Christopher Endy, Cold War Holidays: American Tourism in France (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004), 2.
C. A. Pierson, “Le Congrès International de Psychiatrie (Paris, 18–27 septembre 1950),” Maroc Medical 30, no. 308 (January 1951): 16–21.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 5, letter from Henri Ey to Maisin, July 28, 1950.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 1, report of the secretariat, January 18, 1950.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 1, meeting of the organizing committee, June 7, 1950.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 1, meetings of the organizing committee, July 6, 1949, and October 6, 1949.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 5, questionnaire sent by the CCICMS to Henri Ey, October 16, 1950.
Endy, Cold War Holidays (n. 51), 7.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 2, letter of the organizers of the 2nd International Congress of Criminology to Henri Ey, June 21, 1950.
Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds., The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
Müller, Erinnerungen (n. 27), 410.
The gender determination of the participants was based on first names. For a quarter of the participants we were unable to identify their gender.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 1, meeting of the organizing committee, February 8, 1950.
Ey, Premier Congrès Mondial de Psychiatrie–VIII (n. 10), 179–80.
Ey, “Discours de J.R. Rees” (n. 30), 104.
Mathew Thomson, “Mental Hygiene as an International Movement,” in Weindling, International Health Organisations and Movements (n. 17), 283–305.
John R. Rees, Reflections: A Personal History and an Account of the Growth of the World Federation for Mental Health (New York: U.S. Committee of the World Federation for Mental Health, 1966), xiv.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 5, meeting, June 18, 1950.
“Le premier congrès international de psychiatrie se tiendra à Paris du 18 au 27 Septembre 1950,” Revue Française de Psychanalyse 14, no. 1 (1950): 149.
Henri Ey, ed., “Réunion des délégués des sociétés de psychiatrie,” in Ey, Premier Congrès Mondial de Psychiatrie–VIII (n. 10), 129.
Robert Michel Palem, Henri Ey et les congrès mondiaux de psychiatrie: Avec des textes inédits d’Henry Ey (Perpinyà: Trabucaire, 2000), 12.
Benoît Majerus, Du moyen âge à nos jours, expériences et représentations de la folie à Paris (Paris: Parigramme, 2018), 51–52.
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 5, meeting, June 18, 1950.
Archives de la Ville de Perpignan, 7S, box 502, report of the meeting, September 18, 1950. George Weisz has sketched the turbulent history full of tensions between psychiatry and neurology in Divide and Conquer: A Comparative History of Medical Specialization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
Archives Sainte Anne, fonds Henri Ey, box 1, letter from Henri Ey to Derek Richter, April 19, 1949. Derek Richter, a British neuroscientist, was one of the founding fathers of brain chemistry.
Benjmain-Joseph Logre, “Les progrès de la psychiatrie au cours du dernier demi-siècle seront examinés à Paris lors du congrès mondial de septembre,” Le Monde, June 30, 1950.
Ey, “Discours de M. Le Professeur Jean Delay” (n. 28), 89.
Müller, Erinnerungen (n. 27), 156.
H. Baruk, “Le congrès international de psychiatrie et la visite de Charenton,” La semaine des hôpitaux 27, no. 63–64 (August 26, 1951): 2543–46.
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983).
Bulletin du Congrès International de Psychiatrie, n°3, mars 1950, p. 18.
Exposition Internationale de l’Histoire et du Progrès de la Psychiatrie (Paris, 1950).
Ey, “Discours de Honorio Delgado” (n. 31).
Weisz, Divide and Conquer (n. 74).
Steve Sturdy, Richard Freeman, and Jennifer Smith-Merry, “Making Knowledge for International Policy: WHO Europe and Mental Health Policy, 1970–2008,” Soc. Hist. Med. 26, no. 3 (August 2013): 532–54.
