ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the feature of French psychiatric intellectual history by recounting the terms in which French mad-doctors perceived the incidence of morbid heredity in mental disorders. It describes that the vague and imprecise terms in which it was perceived eased the acceptance of the theory of morbid heredity by French psychiatrists. The chapter explains the development of hereditarian ideas between about 1850 and the end of the century. It also describes that the hereditarianism of post-1850 French psychiatry was in certain respects a paradigmatic phenomenon: mad-doctors exhibited a marked preference for hereditarian approaches to and explanations of insanity. It is remarkable how well psychiatric writings on morbid heredity conformed to this pervasive sociopolitical pessimism. Mental pathologists sought to counteract this attitude and neutralize hostility by embracing a concept of great political, social, and religious currency. Thus, French psychiatrists co-opted the social forces antagonistic to their profession through ideological adaptation.
