Fanon and Psychiatry

Fanon wrote and published a number of psychiatric texts between 1951 and 1960, but they have hitherto been the subject of little critical attention. This article considers first Fanon's unpublished medical thesis, which contains a remarkably lucid discussion of the relationship of neurology and psychiatry: Fanon takes a position in the main debates of the time (in particular those opposing Ey and Lacan) which proves crucial for an understanding of his later work on alienation. This article then considers Fanon's published papers on his experiments with neuropsychiatric treatment in St Alban and in Blida, showing how he moved towards a sociotherapeutical approach, which in turn led him to consider the essential role of culture in mental illness. This article ends by examining Fanon's creation, in Tunis, of an institution of psychiatric care outside of the asylum, which he saw as a blueprint for mental health care in the future.