International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 1, Winter 2019/2020 | Page 30

Criminology Comes Back to Pierre Janet
Most contemporary writers are hesitant about sending those with
obsessions to prison. It is undeniable that, in most cases, actual
imprisonment can and should be avoided. But it is sometimes necessary
to take them out of their environment and to create an artificial
environment that is simpler than the natural one, and it is often
necessary, at least for a period, to resort either to total internment
or, at least, to relative isolation. 7
Urge and Impulse
Such a diagnosis requires a precise definition of the terms used. The issue is
not just semantic: an impulse is controllable, as opposed to an urge, which is
driven by a quasi-mechanical, automatic stage. 8
The concept of imprisonment has, admittedly, gained a bad reputation since
Foucault, although the unambiguous systematicity of his work has been criticized, 9
particularly the idea that such a pathology should not be considered as a disease,
but as the very dimension of being free. 10 This gives mental illness a romantic character,
whereas in fact it narrows the consciousness and prevents any imaginary
projection. Contrary to what Maurice Blanchot (Foucault’s master) says, Hölderlin
did not write thanks to madness, but in order to dispel it, and to ease his suffering.
For Janet, impulse—i.e. tendency or desire (the disposition toward carrying
out certain acts) 11 —can either be emphasized or suspended depending on the
hierarchy established in a moment T by the Synthesis or Personality. This shifting
state of presence/absence, where tendencies continue to develop—these are not
clothes waiting to be put on—embodies, for Janet, the subconscious:
What characterizes the subconsciousness is not that tendencies
wane or remain latent, but rather that they develop and are powerfully
realized, without the mind’s other tendencies being warned of
their realization, and without their being able to work against it. 12
7 Pierre Janet, Les obsessions et la psychasthénie (1903) (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2005), tome 2, volume
1, 702.
8 Pierre Janet, L’automatisme psychologique (1889) (Paris: Odile Jacob, 1997).
9 Marcel Gauchet, preface to “De Pinel à Freud,” in Gladys Swain, Le sujet de la folie (Paris: Calmann-Lévy,
1997).
10 Lucien Oulahbib, Éthique et épistémologie du nihilisme, les meurtriers du sens (Paris: L’Harmattan,
2002), and La philosophie cannibale (Paris: La Table Ronde, 2006).
11 Pierre Janet, “La tension psychologique et ses oscillations,” in Traité de Psychologie, ed. Georges
Dumas (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1923), tome 1, chapter 4, part 1, “L’automatisme des tendances,” 923. See
also Pierre Janet, De l’angoisse à l’extase (1926) (Paris: Société Pierre Janet, 1975), tome 2, 420.
12 Pierre Janet, “La psycho-analyse” (1913), in La psychanalyse de Freud (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2004),
2, “Le mécanisme pathologique du souvenir traumatique,” 75–76.
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