Pierre Janet

Pierre Marie Félix Janet, (born May 30, 1859 – died February 24, 1947) was a French psychiatrist, a student of Jean-Martin Charcot, who pioneered work in the field of mental and emotional disorders.

Life

Pierre Janet was born 1859 in Paris, France. He became interested in philosophy and psychology when still a child, and mostly due to his famous uncle Paul Janet. Paul was a professor of philosophy at Sorbonne and a devoted follower of Victor Cousin. He evoked an interest for spirituality and metaphysics in young Janet, and helped him in his academic career.

Janet became Professor of Philosophy at the Lycée at Havre at the age of 22. He taught there until 1889, and then, with encouragement of his uncle, went on to study medicine. According to Janet himself (see Autobiography), his uncle Paul wanted him to have broad understanding of all aspects of life, including both medicine and philosophy. Janet was an excellent student, and soon his geniality was noticed. After completing a report on unusual case of hypnosis and clairvoyance, Janet started his association with Jean-Martin Charcot, one of the leading neurologists of his time. Janet published several works in late 1880s on automatic acts, hypnosis, and animal magnetism, which he summarized in his philosophy dissertation in 1889. In it he introduced the concept of automatism, dissociations, and subconscious, setting the foundation for analytical psychology.

After an invitation by Charcot, Janet became director of the psychological laboratory at the Salpêtrière, the largest mental institution in Paris. He completed his medical degree there with the dissertation The Mental State of Hystericals, in 1892. In it he argues for the need to unite the efforts of clinical and academic psychology.

In 1898 Janet became a lecturer at the Sorbonne, and in 1902 he was appointed a full time professor of experimental and comparative psychology at the Collège de France, where he taught until 1936. The topics of his lectures ranged from hysteria, amnesia and obsession, to personality studies. He founded the Journal de psychologie normal et pathologique in 1904.

Janet retired from work in late 1930s, and spent the rest of his life in his native Paris. He died in 1947.

Work

Janet remains famous for his study of split personality (today: dissociative disorders). In his doctoral dissertation he introduced the concept of automatism – condition in which activities were performed without conscious knowledge of the subject. He argued that this was possible because certain unconscious fixed ideas, usually traumatic in nature, were forgotten and isolated in one’s consciousness. Those ideas, or “dissociations”, form a separate entity in one’s consciousness, autonomous from the conscious part of it, causing split personality. Janet published his ideas four years before Freud came up with his own, essentially identical discoveries, what later became a dispute between the two over who was the first to discover this.

Criticism

Pierre Janet ‘s uncle, Paul Janet, famous French philosopher, used hypnosis himself in his study of consciousness. Paul believed that split personality and dissociations were result of a rift in a single consciousness, and that those split personalities were still aware of each other. Pierre however claimed something else. He first used term “dissociation” in May 1887 to describe phenomena of double consciousness in hypnotism, hysteria, spirit possession, and mediumship. Janet claimed that in those cases subconscious processes take over the control of primary consciousness, and that the split between the two is total, two existing independently and unaware of each other. The research on split personalities peaked by the end of 19th century.

Pierre’s uncle Paul, however, objected to his nephew’s conclusions and criticized his ideas. The reason behind it was his philosophical and religious beliefs. Paul Janet was a spiritualist and a follower of Victor Cousin, a promoter of eclectic spiritualism – philosophical and spiritual movement that promoted unity of all doctrines based on the commonalities they have. Study of consciousness had central position in Cousin’s philosophy, due to a scientific approach it utilized. Furthermore, Paul Janet was a strong advocate of morality and a critic of materialism, nihilism, and atheism. When Pierre published his work on split personalities, claiming that consciousness could be “split”, and that so-called “spiritual possessions” (and ultimately spirituality in general) were possibly the result of split personality, he started to criticize Pierre. Pierre Janet however remained faithful to a strict empirical method, ignoring the existence of spirituality.

Legacy

Janet began his career as a philosopher, wanting to study hidden structures of human mind. He used hypnosis as a powerful tool in achieving that goal. However, he later turned to analytic psychology, and that is what he remains the most famous for. His study of the nature and treatment of dissociative disorders parallels Freud’s work in the same field. Freud and Breuer used some insights from Janet’s work in their monumental Studies of Hysteria (1895/1957). However, unlike Freud who often used vivid images and intimate stories of his patients to illustrate or support his ideas, Janet remained loyal to a strict, scientific research methodology of nineteen-century academia. His explanations are often very mechanical and dry, seldom discussing his cases from beginning to the end. Because of all this Janet did not generate that many followers as other pioneers of analytical psychology – S. Freud, Otto Rank, Adolf Meyer, Carl G. Jung, or some others.

Furthermore, Janet remained faithful to hypnosis as a tool in investigation and therapy of mental illnesses. And even though hypnosis ceased to be used in clinical practice at the beginning of 20th century, Janet still kept advocating for its usage. This inevitably contributed for his name to fade into oblivion.

Janet’s influence however is not insignificant. His work used Carl. G. Jung (1946/1966) as the main source of his dissociative theories. Janet’s L’Automatisme psychologique can be considered the groundwork for automatic psychology, where he introduced the term “automatism”. In addition, his Les Obsessions et la psychasthénie described the first case of psychasthenia (today part of anxiety disorders). Janet also introduced terms dissociation and subconscious into psychological terminology.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Breuer, J. & Freud, S. 2000. (original work published in 1895). Studies in hysteria. (J. Strachey, Ed. and Trans.). New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0465082769

• Haule, J.R. 1986. Pierre Janet And Dissociation: The First Transference Theory and Its Origins In Hypnosis. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 29(2), 86-94.

• Jung, C.G. 2000. (original work published in 1946). The psychology of the transference. In H. Read, M. Fordham, F. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.). R.F.C. Hall (Trans.). The collected works of C.G. Jung (Bollingen series). (Vol. 16, pp. 163-323). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691074763

• Mayo, Elton. 1948. Some Notes on the Psychology of Pierre Janet. Harvard University Press

• Mayo, Elton. 1972. The psychology of Pierre Janet. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0837133629

• Prevost, Claude M. 1973. La psycho-philosophie de Pierre Janet: économies mentales et progrès humain. Payot. ISBN 2228113700

Bibliography

• Janet, P. (1886). Les actes inconscients et le dedoublement de la personnalite pendant le somnambulisme provoque. Revue Philosophique, 22(2), 577-792.

• Janet, P. (1889). L'automatisme psychologique. Paris: Felix Alcan. (Reprint: Masson, 1989, ISBN 2225818258)

• Janet, P. (1891). Etude sur un cas d'aboulie et d'idees fixes. Revue Philosophique, 331(1), 258- 287.

• Janet, P. (1893). L'amnesie continue. Revue Generale des Sciences, 4, 167-179.

• Janet, P. (1894). Histoire d'une idée fixe. Revue Philosophique, 37(1), 121-163.

• Janet, P. (1897). L'influence somnambulique et le besoin de direction. Revue Philosophique, 43, I, 113- 143.

• Janet, P. (1898). Nevroses et idees fixes. Paris: Felix Alcan. (Reprint: Editions Masson, 1997, ISBN 2225822840)

• Janet, P (1901). The mental state of hystericals. New York: Putnam and Sons. (Reprint: University Publications of America, Washington, DC, 1978 ISBN 0890931666.)

• Janet, P. (1903). Les obsessions et la psychasthénie (2 vols.). Paris: F. Alcan. (Reprint: Ayer Co, New York, 1976 ISBN 0405074344.)

• Janet, P. (1904). L'amnesie et la dissociation des souvenirs par l'emotion. Journale de Psychologie, 1, 417-453.

• Janet, P. (1907). The major symptoms of hysteria. London and New York: Macmillan. (2nd Edition 1965, ISBN 0028471709)

• Janet, P. (1909). Les nervoses. Paris: Flammarion.

• Janet, P. (1909). Du rôle de l'émotion dans la genèse des accidents névropathiques et psychopathiques. Revue Neurologique, 17(2), 1551-1687.

• Janet, P. (1910). Une félida artificielle. Revue philosophique, 69, 329-357 & 483-529.

• Janet, P. (1919). Les médications psychologiques (3 vols.). Paris: Félix Alcan. (Reprint: Société Pierre Janet, Paris, 1984). English edition: Psychological healing (2 vols.). New York: Arno Press, 1976. ISBN 0405074379

• Janet, P. (1928). L'evolution de la memoire et de la notion du temps. Paris: A Chahine.

External links

• Autobiography – Janet’s autobiography, published in 1930

• Biography - Short biography

• La Médecine Psychologique – Online edition of Janet’s book

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