The Salpêtrière in the Age of Charcot

An institutional Perspective on Medical History in the Late Nineteenth Century

Bibliographic Data

ID10074059
AuthorsMark S Micale (Harvard University Press, corresponding author)
Year1985
Volume20
Issue4
Pages703-731
Publication date1985-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/002200948502000411
PMID11617298
OpenAlexW2057469342
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited1

Thirty years ago, the history of medicine was conceived largely as a history of medical ideas. To this older view of the field, scholars in recent decades have added a social and cultural history of medicine, which takes as its natural domain the particular animating contexts of place and time in which these ideas were applied by doctors to patients on a routine basis. In the case of psychology and psychiatry, to examine these ideas in situ means to write a history of the hospital and asylum. Curiously enough, the history of these medical establishments in continental Europe remains very inadequately explored, although several bodies of literature have dealt, either directly or by implication, with this area of inquiry. The bulk of French medical historiography through the years has been trapped in the commemorative mould. The 'histoire hospitaliere', as it is called, consists mainly of sketches of famous doctors and their discoveries, lists of material reforms and accounts of prominent buildings. These writings are very inward-looking in their treatment of the subject and, as might be expected, 'Whig' interpretations predominate. According to this well-known perspective, medical history provides the story of crude and abusive practices rooted in ignorance and superstition, superseded by humane and rational medical activities, selflessly exercised by licensed practitioners and based on an ever-expanding body of scientific knowledge. The hospital serves as the central institutional setting

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