Jean Starobinski: The History of Psychiatry as the Cultural History of Consciousness

Abstract The name of the Genevan critic Jean Starobinski will most likely evoke masterful readings of Rousseau and Montaigne or insightful reconstructions of the world of the Enlightenment. With the possible exception of the history of melancholy, much more rarely will it be associated with the history of psychiatry, or more generally with that of the human sciences. A small number of the critic’s contributions to these fields have appeared in some of his books. Most of them, however, remain scattered, and nothing suggests that they are known as widely as they deserve. Yet Starobinski’s historical work is exemplary in its perspective on the problematic relations between psychological concepts and experiences, and between medical thought and the larger culture. He is one of those rare scholars who successfully straddle the “two cultures,” combining literary elegance with medical training, and a truly cosmopolitan erudition with an uncommon openness to the various humanistic disciplines.1 Starobinski’s oeuvre has won him a wide reputation and several prestigious awards. Whole issues of such different reviews as the Centre Pompidou’s refined Cahiers pour un temps and the more popular Magazine litteraire have been devoted to his work. These honors acknowledge his insights into the fabric of European culture from the Enlightenment to the present, as well as his outstanding literary qualities. Nevertheless, although Starobinski is a major figure of the European intellectual landscape, the reason that the writings to be presented here remain less known and influential than those of other authors included in this volume is perfectly simple. Starobinski is not primarily a historian of psychiatry; his approach and style are not typical of the profession, do not correspond to its major specialized interests, and do not follow prevailing academic currents. Nor are they likely to inaugurate methodologies, lead to crucial empirical findings, or dispense definite interpretive frameworks. The history of science, including that of psychiatry, is inherently porous; its boundaries are, and must, remain open; it is riddled with questions of definition and delimitation; most of its subject matter calls for transdisciplinary research and for extended connections with social and cultural history.