“The Root of All Evil is Inactivity”: The Response of French Psychiatrists to New Approaches to Patient Work and Occupation, 1918–1939

Abstract

Focusing on the varied responses of French psychiatrists to new theories of occupational therapy emerging after World War I, this chapter argues that the voices of psychiatrists in favour of the new methods were “drowned out” by those who continued to interpret mental disorder in purely organic terms, by the desire of many French psychiatrists to enhance their “scientific” credentials through the use of biological treatments, by the reliance on the funds generated by traditional forms of patients work, and by a lack of skilled staff to supervise occupational therapy. As a result, patients in French asylums continued to remain idle or to be occupied with tasks designed to benefit the institution rather than the patient.