[Historical glimpse of French psychopathology]

"Psychopathology" is understood in the sense of "psychology of pathology". This perspective was ill-explored until the beginning of the XXth century since interest was focused on clinical description and classification in the first place. Psychopathology was then explored in wrong directions, such as the theory of "degeneration", a narrow mechanicism. It was enriched by psychoanalysis, behaviorism and, to a lesser extent, phenomenology. Henri Ey's organodynamism is the only comprehensive conception which is specifically French. Sociopathogenesis and psychopharmacology nowadays open new avenues.