Philippe Pinel

Philippe Pinel was born in 1745 in Jonquières, in southern France. He received a medical degree at Toulouse and then studied for four more years at Montpellier. In 1778 he moved to Paris, where he earned a living by translating and editing medical works and tutoring, while studying mental illness; the illness of a friend who became mentally disturbed deepened his interest. In 1793, during the French Revolution, he was appointed physician at the Bicêtre Hospital, a large institution for men, and in 1795 at the Salpêtrière, which housed thousands of women. With the hospital superintendent Jean-Baptiste Pussin and his wife, Marguerite, he worked to replace chains, beatings and bleeding with what he called 'moral treatment': kindness, conversation, observation, work and a calm daily routine. He kept careful case records and tried to classify mental illnesses. His Treatise on Insanity (1801) described these methods and was widely influential. Pinel also taught at the Paris medical school and became a member of the Academy of Sciences. He died in Paris in 1826.

Philippe Pinel is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Distanced himself from religious views and considered excessive religiosity harmful. Source: Wikipedia