Am J Psychiatry 1979; 136:1128-1134
Copyright © 1979 by American Psychiatric Association
The apprenticeship of Philippe Pinel: a new document, "observations of Citizen Pussin on the insane"
DB Weiner
Philippe Pinel is usually pictured in histories of psychiatry and of
medicine as the man who first liberated the insane from their chains. The
document presented here, discovered in 1978 in the Archives nationales in
Paris, reveals the crucial role of Jean-Baptiste Pussin, the "governor" of
mental patients at Bicetre. It was Pussin who initiated Pinel to
psychological methods (the famous traitement moral) in dealing with
hospitalized mental patients. Further, in 1797, Pussin first replaced
chains with straitjackets. Pinel later obtained Pussin's transfer to the
Salpetriere to help him reorganize that huge hospital.
