(February 3, 1772 - December 13, 1840)
French Psychiatrist
Portugees version
Influences
Education- Doctor of Medicine, La Salpàtriäre, Paris
- 1811, physician at La Salpàtriäre
- 1823, chief inspector, University of Paris
- 1826, chief physician, asylum in Charenton, France
Prior to the 1800's there existed no differentiation between mental deficiency
and insanity. Jean Etienne Esquirol made the first attempt to to
delineate this difference. He stated:
"Idiocy is not a disease but a condition in which
the intellectual facilities are never manifested or
have never been developed sufficiently to enable
the idiot to acquire such amount of knowledge
as persons of his own age reared in similar circumstances
are capable of receiving." (p.26)
Esquirol not only attempted to determine a differentiation between mental
retardation and insanity, but also anticipated a number of future developments
in the study of mental retardation. He espoused a belief that retardation
was not an all-or-nothing phenomenon, but felt that it existed on a continuum
from normalcy to idiocy. Also, in an attempt to classify individuals
with mental retardation, he used language capability a criterion rather
than sensations or physiognomy. Unfortunately, Esquirol did not
feel that those individuals with mental retardation would benefit from
training.
Esquirol contributed to psychology through his work with inmates in insane asylums. By lecturing on the treatment of the insane, Esquirol was able to get a French commission to investigate the inhuman treatment of inmates. In 1838 he wrote Des maladies mentales, the first book to espouse an objective and rational view of mental disorders. (Zusne)
Esquirol differentiated between hallucinations and illusions, emphasized
environmental and age factors as precipitants of mental disorders and
the role of emotions in such disorders. He continued to develop Pinel's
statistical classification of inmates by age, disorder, and other characteristics.
It later became the established practice to keep ample records on patients
as one approach to the understanding of the origin of mental disorders.
(Zusne, p. 80)
Publications
Des Maladies Mentales (1838), a treatise on insanity
Included in above: an Essay on Hysteria being an analysis of its irregular
and aggravated forms
References: 29
Home | Interactive
Map | Alphabetic Index | Time
Period Index
Hot Topics | Map - PDF | References | Contributors | Comments
For further information please contact
Content questions: Dr. Jonathan
Plucker (jonathan.plucker AT uconn.edu)
Technical questions: Technology Co-Director (intelltheory AT gmail.com)
Copyright © 2013
Last Modified: 29 April 2018
