Degenerateness, Mental Hygiene, and Spiritism: Debates in the Argentine Medical Press (1930-1946).
Alejandro Parra
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 2025 DOI: 10.1002/jhbs.70003 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Humans Mental health History, 20th century Argentina Degeneration Mental hygiene Kardecist spiritualism Parapsychiatric states Spiritist madness |
| Key points | Argues that psychiatrists used pathologization and psychologization—including the French psychiatric category of 'spiritual delirium'—as strategies to manage mediumship and the perceived threat of Spiritualism, while Spiritists and their representatives contested these diagnostic criteria. The disputes, situated within hygienism and degeneration theory, illustrate how rhetoric from Spiritists, physicians, and some philosophers led to hostile positions over the limits of recognizing psychological and religious experiences. |
Abstract
The disputes between spiritualists and physicians occurred in the context of hygienism and the degeneration theory, where spiritualists were considered agents requiring health care by alienists and psychiatrists. French psychiatry defended this interpretation to isolate and treat "spiritual delirium," which came to have considerable importance in the debates between spiritism and psychiatry. Specifically, pathologization and psychologization became strategies to deal with the disruptive experience of mediumship and the sense of threat from spiritualism. Psychiatrists initiated anti-spiritualist campaigns, inspiring responses from the spiritualist communities and their representatives, along with arguments to refute such diagnostic criteria. The debates between alienists and spiritists are an example of how, the rhetoric of spiritists, physicians, and some philosophers led to hostile positions regarding the designation of limits in the recognition of psychological and religious experiences.