Prosper DESPINE - De la folie - 1875 Lot n° 1030

"First edition of this voluminous work by Despine, which constitutes an answer to certain questions of the philosophical section of the Academy of Sciences, and for which he received a prize.  As the title indicates, the author has endeavoured to treat madness on pure psychological considerations. Thus, he follows in the footsteps of thinkers such as Brian, Luys, Morel or Auguste Comte, whom he also quotes in the book.  For Despine, madness is not a disease but a psychological stage, which finds its origin in a pathological activity of the brain. The latter can also exist in healthy people, which is why he compares the two. The word madness is used to refer to two kinds of alienation, on the one hand when the intellectual faculties are intact, but there is moral perversion; on the other hand when the psychic faculties are impotent and incoherent, and morals are also more or less perverted (Andrew Wynter, The Borderland of Insanity and other Allied Papers, pp.449-450). The work of the alienist Prosper Despine (1812-1892) refers to the development of psychiatry, which, together with Pinel, Cabanis or Esquirol, was interested in the relationship between mental illness and crime". In-8, full modern canvas, title piece in red morocco, ex-libris Dr. Fouks, cover preserved with dispatch, red pencil underlining, Paris, Savy, 1875, XII, 1000 pp. First edition.