Die Behandlung der psychischen Störung: Hegel und Pinel gegen die De-Humanisierung der Geisteskranken

The French psychiatrist Philippe Pinel and the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel each endorsed a concept and a treatment of mental insanity which was at that time completely original and apparently difficult to put into practice: they both viewed insanity as something human, in which individuals retain a residue of rationality. The aim of my essay is to demonstrate that Pinel’s observations in psychiatry and Hegel’s philosophical understanding of mental insanity resist an approach to mentally insane people in which human dignity is not respected. First, I will focus on the treatment methods that Jean- Martin Charcot carried out in the second half of the nineteenth century in the Salpêtrière “madhouse” in Paris. In contrast to these methods, I will then discuss Hegel’s original understanding of mental illness and its connection to Pinel’s revolution in psychiatry. I will conclude by explaining the significant theoretical and practical implications of this concept of mental insanity.