International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 1, Winter 2019/2020 | Page 35

International Journal on Criminology
Philosophique de la France et de l’Étranger. 36 Freud on the other hand states that,
from 1886 to 1891, he himself “did little scientific work, and published scarcely
anything,” 37 although this was clearly not the case in the period that followed.
Freud’s Hostility toward Janet
Many critics continued to claim, in 1925, that Freud’s theories were inspired
by those of Janet, something that Freud was very unhappy with,
revealing in An Autobiographical Study that he had, for instance, never
heard of Janet while he was following Charcot’s classes at La Salpêtrière in 1885. 38
And indeed, Janet did not have permanent direct contact with Charcot until 1890, 39
when Charcot entrusted him, among others, 40 with managing a psychology laboratory
at the Salpêtrière clinic. 41 Charcot became the supervisor of Janet’s medical
thesis in 1893. In 1885, Charcot tasked Freud with the translation into German of
his “Nouvelles leçons.” 42
But that was enough for Freud to write, in An Autobiographical Study, that
“Charcot accepted the offer, I was admitted to the circle of his personal acquaintances,
and from that time forward I took a full part in all that went on at the Clinic.”
43 Note in passing, in connection with this “full part,” that when Freud asked
Charcot to supervise his thesis, “a comparative study of hysterical and organic
paralyses,” Charcot declined. 44 Freud remarked that Charcot “agreed with [his]
view, but it was easy to see that in reality he took no special interest in penetrating
more deeply into the psychology of the neuroses.” 45 But Charcot unceasingly
researched the specifically psychological foundations of hysteria—for instance, in
his 1884 book, Pour guérir les paralysies psychiques par des procédés psychologiques
(Treating Psychological Paralyses through Psychological Procedures). However,
he did not share Freud’s view that sexual repression lay at the basis of all neurosis.
Janet took the same position, without necessarily trying to start an argument with
Freud, for his aim was to make scientific advances.
36 Ibid., 14.
37 Freud, An Autobiographical Study, 4196.
38 Ibid., 4191.
39 In his Histoire de la médecine, Charcot, 1825–1893, 53, Charles Drèze writes that “Pierre Janet
was introduced into Charcot’s service by his uncle in 1885, and worked there constantly and
continuously from 1890 to 1910” (http://www.md.ucl.ac.be/loumed/CD/DATA/120/36-69.PDF).
40 Charcot “asked him, in 1892, to give a series of lectures at La Salpêtrière (March 11, March 17, April
1)” (Nicolas in Janet, Conférences à la Salpêtrière, 11).
41 Ibid., 11.
42 Freud, An Autobiographical Study, 4190.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid., 4191.
45 Ibid.
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