[Initial psychiatric experiences of Philippe Pinel at the Belhomme Hospital]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Philippe Pinel's psychiatric experience, his practice in "la maison de santé Belhomme" and his first publications which were concerned with the treatment of mental patients and appeared in "La Gazette de Santé" which he edited between 1785 and 1789. During that time, the main preoccupation of the future head doctor of "La Salpétrière" had been to ensure the application and the development of moral treatment, in its practical modalities as well as its theoretic rationalization. Meanwhile, the institutional aspect of this therapy had the upper hand over the individual cure. This evolution brought Pinel and his successors to neglect the latter. In this connection we can regret that Philippe Pinel did not continue to have more private practice for this allowed him to follow first his experience and research (individual cure) in this field of rational psychotherapy, that of moral treatment.