The following text is the conclusion of a two-part translation of Falret’s 1854 essay arguing against the concept of monomania. In order to shine new light on the conceptual understanding of madness, the text emphasizes the importance of thorough clinical observations and the perspective of the whole patient, rejecting the disproportionate attention given to isolated symptoms, and in this respect his work represents a turning point away from the more traditional alienism.
FalretJP (1854) De la non-existence de la monomanie. Archives générales de médecine (5e série), (No. 4): 147–164; reprinted in Falret, 1864: 425–448; Part 1 translated as Classic Text No. 91 (see Lepoutre, 2012).
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FalretJP (1864) Des Maladies mentales et des asiles d’aliénés. Paris: J.B. Baillière et fils.
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HaustgenTSinzelleJ (2010) Emil Kraepelin (1856–1926). 2. Le Traité. Annales Médico-psychologiques168(9): 716–719.
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KahlbaumKL (1996) On the Classification of Mental Disorders: Part III [1863]. Classic Text No. 25; introduction and translation by GE Berrios. History of Psychiatry7: 167–182.
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KraepelinE (1899) Psychiatrie. Ein Lehrbuch für Studirende und Aerzte, 6th edn.Leipzig: Barth.
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KraepelinE (1992) Die Erscheinungsformen des Irreseins [1920]. Classic Text No. 12; translation by BeerD, introductions by BeerDHoffP. History of Psychiatry3: 499–529.
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LepoutreT (2012) ‘De la non-existence de la monomanie’, by Jean-Pierre Falret (1854). Classic Text No. 91; introduction and translation, Part 1. History of Psychiatry23(3): 356–370.
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