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Neurologist or psychiatrist? The public and private domains of Jean‐Martin Charcot
Author(s) -
Gelfand Toby
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6696(200022)36:3<215::aid-jhbs1>3.0.co;2-n
Subject(s) - neurasthenia , hysteria , flexibility (engineering) , private practice , field (mathematics) , neurology , psychiatry , psychoanalysis , psychology , test (biology) , medicine , family medicine , management , paleontology , mathematics , pure mathematics , economics , biology
The emergence of neurology as an autonomous, prestigious field in late‐nineteenth‐century Paris is well known. Less appreciated is the role that neurologists played vis‐à‐vis the cognate older field of psychiatry. Taking Jean‐Martin Charcot, the most influential neurologist of his time, as a test case, this paper contrasts his attitudes and practice in the public setting of teaching and hospital work with his private practice. A staunch defender of a clear distinction between his field and psychiatry, Charcot's private practice displayed more flexibility. Treating hysteria and neurasthenia created a middle ground of nervous diseases for him to cultivate. Unpublished case histories and other materials, especially from the Charcot library, support the conception of neurologists as active agents in constituting a new psychological medicine. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.