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Emmanuel
Delille

History - Germany

Contact details

Research topics

PROJECT

A HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRIC EPIDEMIOLOGY : THE STUDY OF CHARTRES AS A CASE STUDY OF INVESTIGATION METHODS 1945-89

Although it provides the only indicators of the prevalence of mental disorders in the population, the history of psychiatric epidemiology is not well known. Moreover, epidemiology had a huge impact on global mental health policies after the foundation of the WHO (1948). The first goal of the project is to identify the scientific actors and communities who were active in the field of psychiatric epidemiology, starting with the local production of knowledge in France, UK, US, and Canada. Using epidemiological literature and archival documents, the project is creating a prosopography of the researchers who contributed to the development of psychiatric epidemiology between 1945 and the present. The second objective of this historical analysis is to reconstruct scientific networks in a transnational perspective, considering different levels of scale. Emerging science after 1945, psychiatric epidemiology depended on researchers who were partly trained overseas before being appointed to high-ranking positions in their country. Thus, the focus is on describing how epidemiological instruments—questionnaires and other artefacts—circulated between different scientific communities. Other questions raised relate to the development of psychiatric epidemiology as a history of the expertise on which national health agencies, international agencies, and NGOs launched policies for the prevention of chronic disorders, a major change in health planning after 1945. What are the connections between epidemiological studies and the planning of the health care in the context of Western welfare states? Do the questionnaires used around the world for international surveys have a history? What impact translation, adaptation, and appropriation of questionnaires have on the local scientific investigation and on the replication of results? The research project will address case studies, for instance the “Isle of Wight Study” in UK, the “Chartres Study” in France, and the “Stirling County Study” in North America.

Activities / Resume

BIOGRAPHY

Emmanuel Delille, historian of science, is currently an Associate Researcher at the Centre d’Archives en Philosophie, Histoire et Édition des Sciences (CAPHÉS, École Normale Supérieure, Paris) and at Centre Marc Bloch (CMB, Humboldt University, Berlin). He earned a doctorate in History at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris) in 2008 with a dissertation on the history of the French medical encyclopaedia, the “Encyclopédie Médico-Chirurgicale” (EMC), between 1947 and 1977. One of his major interests is the history of psychiatry: the intellectual networks and comparative history between France, Germany, and North America—particularly Canada. Other research projects after his PhD include the history of the French psychiatric hospital Bonneval (Eure-et-Loir), the history of Canadian and Japanese transcultural psychiatry, and the history of the French scholarly society “L’Évolution Psychiatrique” (created in 1924). A large number of his publications include reflections on the critical use of archival material, especially medical records of hospitals, and journals of patient associations in a psychiatric context. Emmanuel’s interest in intellectual history deals with epistolary material: above all, letters between scientists involved in scholarly networks. Since 2009, he has conducted postdoctoral research in Germany on the history of psychiatry during the Wirtschaftswunder years, using the tools of the French-German histoire croisée to evaluate the reading patterns of how and when German physicians read French publications, and vice versa. Within the field of the history of mental health, Emmanuel is also currently researching the history of cultural psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology in Canada, US, France, Germany, and UK. In these different comparative perspectives, his main inquiry remains the shaping of the dynamic of the circulation of knowledge. Emmanuel’s current research project examines the history of post-war "transcultural psychiatry" in Canada. He is writing a book about the Transcultural Psychiatry Unit founded by Eric Wittkower in Montreal (McGill University, 1955).

MAIN PUBLICATIONS

Livre

  • Emmanuel Delille (éd.), Ethno-Psychiatrie, Lyon, Éditions ENS, 2017.

Editeur invité pour numéro spéciaux

  • Emmanuel Delille and Ivan Crozier (éd.), History of Psychiatry, Special Issue: « Historicizing Transcultural Psychiatry », vol. 29, issue 3, September 2018.

Articles

  • “Eric Wittkower and the Foundation of Montréal’s Transcultural Psychiatry Research Unit after the Second World War”, History of Psychiatry, vol. 29, issue 3, September 2018, p. 282-296.
  • “Réforme ou modernisation de l’asile? L’exemple du Centre Hospitalier Henri Ey de Bonneval (Eure-et-Loir, 1947-1970)”, La fin de l’asile (sous la direction d’Hervé Guillemain, Alexandre Klein et Marie-Claude Thifault), Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2018, p. 129-142.
  • “Usages et mésusages de la notion de précurseur en histoire des sciences et des techniques, en particulier en histoire de la psychiatrie: À propos d’un échange épistolaire entre Henri Ellenberger et Georges Canguilhem (1967)”, Revue d’Histoire des Sciences, vol. 70, n°2, 2017, p. 327-350.
  • “Teaching the History of Psychiatry in the 1950s: Henri Ellenberger’s Lectures at the Menninger Foundation”, Zinbun, Kyoto University, vol. 47, 2016, p. 109-124.
  • “Reconstruire une sociabilité savante à partir des archives du Centre Hospitalier Henri Ey de Bonneval : réseaux et leurres induits par le travail archivistique”, Santé Mentale au Québec, vol. 41, n°2, 2016, p. 133-146.
  • “Le cours de Ian Hacking au Collège de France: la psychiatrie comme lieu d’observation privilégié de l’histoire des concepts scientifiques (2000-2006)”, Revue de Synthèse, vol. 137, n°1/2, 2016, p. 89-117.
  • “On the History of Cultural Psychiatry: Georges Devereux, Henri Ellenberger, and the Psychological Treatment of Native Americans in the 1950’s”, Transcultural Psychiatry, vol. 53, n°3, 2016, p. 392-411.
  • “La psychose débutante comme catégorie productrice de normes. Contribution à l'histoire des pratiques de santé, France-Allemagne 1945-1989”, Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, vol. 33, n°1, 2016, p. 141-158.
  • “La Loi Faure (1968) de réforme de l’enseignement supérieur en France et ses répercussions sur les études de psychiatrie: recherche sur un cercle de sociabilité”, Zinbun, Kyoto University, vol. 46, 2015, p. 111-133.
  • “La réception française des travaux allemands sur les psychoses débutantes. Un exemple de circulation difficile des savoirs”, PSN: Psychiatrie, Neurosciences et Sciences Humaines, vol. 13, n°1, 2015, p. 51-73.
  • “Le Bons Sens, revue de l’Entr’Aide Psycho-sociale Féminine d’Eure-et-Loir (1949-1974). Contribution à l’histoire de la vie quotidienne en hôpital psychiatrique”, Criminels, soldats, patients en psychiatrie XIXe-XXe siècles (sous la direction de Laurence Guignard, Hervé Guillemain et Stéphane Tisson), Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2013, p. 251-261.
  • “Un voyage d’observation d’Henri Ellenberger aux États-Unis: Henri Ellenberger entre psychiatrie transculturelle et héritage janétien (1952)”, Psychiatries dans l’histoire (sous la direction de Jacques Arveiller), Presses Universitaires de Caen, 2008, p. 85-95.
  • “L’organo-dynamisme d’Henri Ey : l’oubli d’une théorie de la conscience considéré dans ses relations avec l’analyse existentielle de Ludwig Binswanger”, L’Homme et la Société, n°167, 2008, p. 203-219.
  • “Henri Ellenberger et le Traité de Psychiatrie de l’Encyclopédie Médico-Chirurgicale : une carrière américaine sous le patronage du groupe de l’Évolution Psychiatrique en collaboration avec Henri Ey”, Gesnerus, Revue suisse d’histoire de la médecine, vol. 63, n°3/4, 2006, p. 259-279.