La Question de l'hérédité des troubles mentaux en Angleterre (1900-1945) : La génétique à la rencontre de la psychiatrie
par Patricia Ricard
Thèse de doctorat en Sciences sociales
Sous la direction de Jean Gayon.
Soutenue en 2001
à Paris 7 .
mots clés-
Résumé
Ce travail examine la diversité des travaux et des théories scientifiques ayant contribué, entre 1900 et 1945 en Angleterre, à affirmer, confirmer ou mettre en doute la réalité de la transmission héréditaire des troubles mentaux. Il met cette diversité en rapport avec le contexte social en Angleterre qui a contribué à faire des troubles mentaux une question importante et un objet d'étude privilégié: entre 1900 et 1945, le problème des patients atteints de troubles mentaux (handicapés et malades mentaux) fait l'objet de pas moins de 4 commissions d'experts nationales et 3 lois spécifiques. L'auteur examine la place de l'hérédité dans ces débats, dans la mesure où les individus atteints de troubles mentaux, du fait de l'hérédité que l'on attribuait à leur condition, pouvaient également représenter une menace raciale pour certains (les eugénistes en particulier). . .
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Résumé
This work examines the diversity of the scientific work and theories in Britain between 1900 and 1945 that contributed to prove, disprove or question the reality of the hereditary transmission of mental disorder. It connects this scientific diversity with the British social context that contributes to make mental disorder an important issue and scientific object: between 1900 and 1945 the problem of the mentally defective and the mentally ill was tackled by no less than 4 national commissions and three specific acts of Parliament. The author examines the role of heredity in these debates, in as much as mentally disordered individuals, because their condition was considered hereditary, could also to some (the eugenists in particular) pose a radical threat. It appears that, until 1930, the inheritance of mental disorder was considered as obvious by both clinicians and academics alike, although all had developed different and incompatible models and proofs of inheritance. This consensus regarding heredity was shattered at the beginning of the 1930s when the debate on the sterilisation of the mentally disordered developed in Britain. Although this social and political context did not lead to legalising sterilisation, it helped set up large scale national surveys on the inheritance of mental disorder. These combined for the first time clinical expertise and Mendelian genetics. These surveys, led, amongst others, by Lionel Penrose and Eliot Slater, resulted in a changed perception of the inheritance of mental deficiency and mental illness amongst academics and clinicians alike. They also contributed to the emergence of two new disciplines in Britain after the war : human genetics and psychiatric genetics.
