Fields of Knowledge under Construction: Pedology and Medico-pedagogical Approaches in France at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Summary Examining the work of Georges Paul-Boncour and Jean Philippe, two now almost forgotten physicians active from the turn of the twentieth century on in the medical and educational field of ‘school hygiene’ for so-called abnormal children, this article exemplifies a specific current in psychiatry whose terms first kept oscillating between medico-pedagogical treatment and therapeutic hygiene. I investigate how Paul-Boncour and Philippe’s interest in abnormal children led them to challenge education as a whole. By attempting to individualise education, the two doctors were swimming against the tide of regular schooling, which evaluated children on their ability to fit in with others and fulfil preset expectations. The conflicts between these physicians and their contemporaries (teachers, psychologists, lawyers) attest the emergence of a dimension in psychiatry that was rooted in collaboration with teachers, as doctors and teachers worked together for the full development of ‘pedology’, the scientific study of children’s development.