Pierre Marie Félix Janet (; 30 May 1859 – 24 February 1947) was a pioneering French
psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...
, physician, philosopher, and
psychotherapist
Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome pro ...
in the field of
dissociation
Dissociation, in the wide sense of the word, is an act of disuniting or separating a complex object into parts. Dissociation may also refer to:
* Dissociation (chemistry), general process in which molecules or ionic compounds (complexes, or salts ...
and
traumatic memory.
He is ranked alongside
William James
William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States.
James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...
and
Wilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (; ; 16 August 1832 – 31 August 1920) was a German physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the fathers of modern psychology. Wundt, who distinguished psychology as a science from philosophy and ...
as one of the founding fathers of psychology.
Biography
Janet studied under
Jean-Martin Charcot
Jean-Martin Charcot (; 29 November 1825 – 16 August 1893) was a French neurology, neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. He worked on hypnosis and hysteria, in particular with his hysteria patient Louise Augustine Gleizes. Charcot ...
at the Psychological Laboratory in the
Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital
Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital (french: Hôpital universitaire la Pitié-Salpêtrière, ) is a teaching hospital in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. Part of the and a teaching hospital of Sorbonne University.
History
The Salpêtrià ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. He first published the results of his research in his philosophy thesis in 1889 and in his medical thesis, ''L'état mental des hystériques'', in 1892. He earned a degree in medicine the following year in 1893.
In 1898, Janet was appointed lecturer in psychology at the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
, and in 1902 he attained the chair of experimental and comparative psychology at the
Collège de France
The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment (''grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ne ...
, a position he held until 1936. He was a member of the
Institut de France
The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute m ...
from 1913, and was a central figure in French psychology in the first half of the 20th century.
Theories
Janet was one of the first people to allege a connection between events in a subject's past life and their present-day trauma, and coined the words "
dissociation
Dissociation, in the wide sense of the word, is an act of disuniting or separating a complex object into parts. Dissociation may also refer to:
* Dissociation (chemistry), general process in which molecules or ionic compounds (complexes, or salts ...
" and "
subconscious
In psychology, the subconscious is the part of the mind that is not currently of focal awareness.
Scholarly use of the term
The word ''subconscious'' represents an anglicized version of the French ''subconscient'' as coined in 1889 by the psycho ...
". His study of the "magnetic passion" or "rapport" between the patient and the hypnotist anticipated later accounts of the
transference
Transference (german: Ãœbertragung) is a phenomenon within psychotherapy in which the "feelings, attitudes, or desires" a person had about one thing are subconsciously projected onto the here-and-now Other. It usually concerns feelings from a ...
phenomenon.
The 20th century saw Janet developing a grand model of the mind in terms of levels of energy, efficiency and social competence, which he set out in publications including ''Obsessions and Psychasthenia'' (1903) and ''From Anguish to Ecstasy'' (1926), among others. In its concern for the construction of the personality in social terms, this model has been compared to the social
behaviorism
Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex evoked by the pairing of certain antecedent (behavioral psychology), antecedent stimuli in the environment, o ...
of
George Herbert Mead
George Herbert Mead (February 27, 1863 – April 26, 1931) was an American philosopher, Sociology, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatism, pragmati ...
something which explains
Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and ...
's early praise of "Janet, who demonstrated so admirably the signification of feelings of persecution as phenomenological moments in social behaviour".
Developmental hierarchy
Janet established a developmental model of the mind in terms of a hierarchy of nine "tendencies" of increasingly complex organisational levels.
He detailed four "lower tendencies", rising from the "reflexive" to the "elementary intellectual"; two "middle tendencies", involving language and the social world; and three "higher tendencies", the "rational-ergotic" world of work, and the "experimental and progressive tendencies".
According to Janet,
neurosis
Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving chronic distress, but neither delusions nor hallucinations. The term is no longer used by the professional psychiatric community in the United States, having been eliminated from th ...
could be seen as a failure to integrate, or a regression to earlier tendencies, and he defined
subconsciousness as "an act which has kept an inferior form amidst acts of a higher level".
Influence on depth psychology
William James
In his 1890 essay ''The Hidden Self'',
William James
William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States.
James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...
wrote of P. Janet's observations of "
hysterical somnambulist
Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism or noctambulism, is a phenomenon of combined sleep and wakefulness. It is classified as a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family. It occurs during slow wave stage of sleep, in a state of lo ...
" patients at Havre Hospital, detailed in Janet's 1889 doctorate of letters thesis, ''De l'Automatisme Psychologique''. James made note of various aspects of
automatism and the apparent multiple personalities ("two selves") of patients variously exhibiting "trances, subconscious states" or alcoholic
delirium tremens
Delirium tremens (DTs) is a rapid onset of confusion usually caused by withdrawal from alcohol. When it occurs, it is often three days into the withdrawal symptoms and lasts for two to three days. Physical effects may include shaking, shiver ...
. James was apparently fascinated by these manifestations and said, "How far the splitting of the mind into separate conciousnesses may obtain in each one of us is a problem. P. Janet holds that it is only possible where there is an abnormal weakness, and consequently a defect of unifying or coordinating power."
Freud
Controversy over whose ideas came first, Janet's or
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
's, emerged at the 1913 Congress of Medicine in London. Prior to that date, Freud had freely acknowledged his debt to Janet, particularly in his work with
Josef Breuer
Josef Breuer ( , ; 15 January 1842 – 20 June 1925) was a distinguished physician who made key discoveries in neurophysiology, and whose work in the 1880s with his patient Bertha Pappenheim, known as Anna O., developed the talking cure (catharti ...
, writing for example of "the theory of hysterical phenomena first put forward by P. Janet and elaborated by Breuer and myself". He stated further that "we followed his example when we took the splitting of the mind and dissociation of the personality as the centre of our position", but he was also careful to point out where "the difference lies between our view and Janet's".
Writing in 1911 of the
neurotic's withdrawal from reality, Freud stated: "Nor could a fact like this escape the observation of Pierre Janet; he spoke of a loss of 'the function of reality'", and as late as 1930, Freud drew on Janet's expression "psychological poverty" in his work on civilisation.
However, in his report on psychoanalysis in 1913, Janet argued that many of the novel terms of psychoanalysis were only old concepts renamed, even down to the way in which his own "psychological analysis" preceded Freud's "psychoanalysis". This provoked angry attacks from Freud's followers, and thereafter Freud's own attitude towards Janet cooled. In his lectures of 1915-16, Freud said that "for a long time I was prepared to give Janet very great credit for throwing light on neurotic symptoms, because he regarded them as expressions of ''idées inconscientes'' which dominated the patients". However, after what Freud saw as his backpedalling in 1913, he said, "I think he has unnecessarily forfeited much credit".
The charge of plagiarism stung Freud especially. In his autobiographical sketch of 1925, he denied firmly that he had plagiarized Janet, and as late as 1937, he refused to meet Janet on the grounds that "when the libel was spread by French writers that I had listened to his lectures and stolen his ideas he could with a word have put an end to such talk" but did not.
A balanced judgement might be that Janet's ideas, as published, did indeed form part of Freud's starting point, but that Freud subsequently developed them substantively in his own fashion.
Jung
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...
studied with Janet in Paris in 1902 and was much influenced by him, for example equating what he called a
complex
Complex commonly refers to:
* Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe
** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
with Janet's ''idée fixe subconsciente''.
Jung's view of the mind as "consisting of an indefinite, because unknown, number of complexes or fragmentary personalities" built upon what Janet in ''Psychological Automatism'' called "simultaneous psychological existences".
Jung wrote of the debt owed to "Janet for a deeper and more exact knowledge of
hysterical symptoms", and talked of "the achievements of Janet,
Flournoy, Freud and others" in exploring the
unconscious
Unconscious may refer to:
Physiology
* Unconsciousness, the lack of consciousness or responsiveness to people and other environmental stimuli
Psychology
* Unconscious mind, the mind operating well outside the attention of the conscious mind a ...
.
Adler
Alfred Adler
Alfred Adler ( , ; 7 February 1870 – 28 May 1937) was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. His emphasis on the importance of feelings of belonging, family constellation and birth order ...
openly derived his
inferiority complex
In psychology, an inferiority complex is an intense personal feeling of inadequacy, often resulting in the belief that one is in some way deficient, or inferior, to others.
According to Alfred Adler, a feeling of inferiority may be brought ab ...
concept from Janet's ''Sentiment d'incomplétude'', and the two men cited each other's work on the issue in their writings.
Publications
In 1923, Janet wrote a definitive text on
suggestion
Suggestion is the psychological process by which a person guides their own or another person's desired thoughts, feelings, and behaviors by presenting stimuli that may elicit them as reflexes instead of relying on conscious effort.
Nineteenth-ce ...
, ''La médecine psychologique'', and in 1928-32 published several definitive papers on memory.
While Janet did not publish much in English, the 15 lectures that he gave to the
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...
between 15 October and the end of November 1906 were published in 1907 as ''The Major Symptoms of Hysteria''. He received an honorary doctorate from Harvard in 1936.
Of his great synthesis of human psychology,
Henri Ellenberger
Henri Frédéric Ellenberger (Nalolo, Barotseland, Rhodesia, 6 November 1905 – Quebec, 1 May 1993) was a Canadian psychiatrist, medical historian, and criminologist, sometimes considered the founding historiographer of psychiatry. Ellenberger ...
wrote that "this requires about twenty books and several dozen of articles".
[Ellenberger, p. 387.]
See also
References
Further reading
* Brooks III, J. I. (1998). ''The eclectic legacy. Academic philosophy and the human sciences in nineteenth - century France''. Newark: University of Delaware Press.
* Carroy, J. & Plas, R. (2000) . How Pierre Janet used pathological psychology to save the philosophical self. ''Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences'', 36, 231-240.
* Foschi, R. (2003) 'La Psicologia Sperimentale e Patologica di Pierre Janet e la Nozione di Personalità (1885–1900)'
''Medicina & Storia'' 5, 45-68.
* Johnson, George M. ''Dynamic Psychology in Modernist British Fiction''. Palgrave Macmillan, U.K., 2006.
* LeBlanc, A. (2001). The Origins of the Concept of Dissociation: Paul Janet, his Nephew Pierre, and the Problem of Post-hypnotic Suggestion, ''History of Science'', 39, 57-69.
* LeBlanc, A. (2004). Thirteen Days: Joseph Delboeuf versus Pierre Janet on the Nature of Hypnotic Suggestion, ''Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences'', 40, 123-147.
* Lombardo G.P, Foschi R. (2003). The Concept of Personality between 19th Century France and 20th Century American Psychology. History of Psychology, vol. 6; 133-142, ,
* Serina F. (2020) « Janet-Schwartz-Ellenberger: the history of a triangular relationship through their unpublished correspondence » History of Psychiatry, 31, 1, p. 3-20.
External links
About Pierre Janet
Reading guide
Works of Pierre Janet
Psychological Automatism: Essay of Experimental Psychology on the Lower Forms of Human ActivityDoctorate of Science thesis of Pierre Janet.
La Médecine PsychologiqueImportant book by Pierre Janet. It clarifies what he thought about Suggestion. (PDF download)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Janet, Pierre
1859 births
1947 deaths
French hypnotists
Collège de France faculty
University of Paris faculty
French psychologists
Harvard Medical School people
École Normale Supérieure alumni
French psychiatrists
19th-century psychologists
20th-century psychologists
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences