Automatism, Surrealism and the making of French psychopathology: the case of Pierre Janet

摘要

This article deals with the clinical use of 'automatic writing' by the French psychologist Pierre Janet at the fin de siecle and its later appropriation by Surrealist poets during the inter-war period. Of special interest are the acknowledged influences of Surrealism's leading representative. Why did Andre Breton, in his mythical love affair with Freudianism, systematically silence his indebtedness to the Janetian model of the mind? In order to examine this question we turn to a little-studied theme: Janet's increasing distance from Spiritism and psychical research. In seeking to establish his new discipline within a medical framework, Janet erected barriers between the psychological sciences and such seemingly 'extra-scientific' fields. In so doing, he placed himself at odds with other members of the intellectual community who saw in the automatic manifestations of the mind a source of exalted creativity.