الطب العقلي في عهد الاستعمار الفرنسي بالجزائر

الملخص EN

I do not claim to be a historian at all, but I consider it necessary to record some historical facts by addressing the subject of psychiatry during the French colonization in Algeria, especially, after my brief readings of a few books in French, on this subject in particular.

Historians believe that the practice of medicine in North Africa was very old, succeeding the time of the Arab peoples during their rebirth in the golden age, as confirmed by historians of medical sciences.

Thus, under the title "The practice of psychiatry in the Maghreb countries", Pr.

Slaim Ammar writes that Arab and non-Arab doctors attach great importance to the psychological aspect (social environment and culture) in the explanation of symptoms of mental illness.

However, when French psychiatrists accompanied their soldiers during Algeria's colonial campaigns, the reverse happened.

During their practices, they applied racist ideas, notably those brought by "Morel", the spiritual father of the theory of "pathological deviation of types and/or phrenology".

French psychiatrists took "the peoples of North Africa", including the Algerians, as mentally handicapped in their country.