La circulation des savoirs psychiatriques en Europe

A Republic of Alienists? A Transnational Perspective on Psychiatric Knowledge Circulation Across Europe 

Thesis Defence by Eva Andersen



Eva Andersen will defend her PhD thesis titled: “A republic of Alienists? A transnational perspective on psychiatric knowledge circulation across Europe (1843-1925)” on the 28th of May 2021 (15h00 CEST) at the University of Luxembourg.


Those who would like to virtually attend can ask for the link by sending an email to Eva Andersen (eva.andersen@uni.lu)


Abstract

The history of psychiatry has over the past decades been largely dominated by the production and re-production of national narratives in which different aspects of psychiatry are often associated with a particular country or region. While this has left little room to consider the value of psychiatry’s less prominent developments, this persistent national tendency has also minimised the role and (in)direct contributions of foreign alienists on national and transnational developments across Europe. Numerous alienists in the nineteenth and early twentieth century strived towards the common goal of better patient care and treatment, and frequently communicated with each other in a variety of ways about these principals and the obstacles they faced. This begs the question if these shared ideals created an imagined or tangible Republic of Alienists, analogue to that of the Republic of Letters. This idea stands far away from nationally contained histories and creates the need for a new representation of psychiatric knowledge development and its circulation. Transnational narratives can help to decentralise and open-up European historiography, and explore new avenues of the history of psychiatry. Via several case studies and by using concepts, theories and practices from the field of transnational history, the history of knowledge and digital history, I demonstrate the variety of ways through which knowledge was transported and able to circulate across Europe. Secondly, I illustrate that knowledge was built through peoples’ personal and professional networks and reputation, which were shaped by their involvement in various activities in the psychiatric community and through the rhetoric they used to communicate. Thirdly, I explain and highlight the many grey areas that existed in connection to the, not so straightforward, dissemination of psychiatric knowledge. Lastly, I illustrate that forgotten or failed psychiatric knowledge forms as much a part of history as those facts, events and processes that have been identified as the most essential narratives. Combined, these outcomes demonstrate that there was not just one Republic of Alienists but that several existed in a variety of sizes and different degrees of authority.