In this research I present a study on the origin of alienism in the 19th century in the work of Phillipe Pinel in context. The purpose of the paper is to show how the French physician proposes alienism inspired by the anthropological ideas of his time. After the introduction, a brief historical overview of the anthropology of modernity is given to place Pinel's work in context. This is followed by a survey of Pinel's anthropological ideas, which are (...) in a sense coincident with his period. Finally, it is presented how Pinel proposes his famous alienism, situated between the understanding and the affected life, as well as the way of curing his patients as a consequence of his anthropological approach. (shrink)

For Philippe Pinel, the concept of melancholy is one of the key methods for understanding not only a specific mental illness but also the new map of mental alienation. However, as Hegel shows in his work, the madness is not only a moment of growth in the history of the mind, but also a pattern of scientific intellect that builds a new science of the mind that is a science of humanity. It is the melancholy, however, with its complex (...) and rich history, which represents the testbed of the nascent psychiatry: the epistemological crisis caused by the inquiry into the nature of melancholy started, which with Pinel, will force both medicine and philosophy to build anew the moral science, only recently born with Pinel and Esquirol. This new foundation will be possible only by meditating on the history of the conception of melancholy and its relation to the antique and modern philosophical and scientific thought. (shrink)

The chapter traces the history of psychiatric ethics with a focus on the emergence of autonomy and how assumptions and thresholds surrounding informed consent and decision-making capacity have changed over the centuries. Innovators like Philippe PInel and William Tuke are featured in this account of how the 'mad' and the abuses of the 'domestication paradigm' of madness eventually gave way to more humanitarian approaches of treating the 'mad', like moral treatment. The chapter closes with a brief reflection regarding the (...) limits of autonomy and the decline of paternalism in psychiatric ethics. (shrink)