Du surnaturel à une « théogénie pathologique » ? Georges Dumas, psychologue esthète face à quelques contrastes nosographiques

Abstract

Georges Dumas (1866–1946) a psychologist and psychiatrist who has fallen into obsolescence, was interested in religion as a means for investigating psychopathological knowledge. Both his intellectual career and his work and teaching attest to this fact. At the crossroads between mysticism and madness, his contribution to the Société Médico-Psychologique – “Mentalité paranoïde et mentalité primitive” (“Paranoid mentality and primitive mentality”) (1934) – a seminal text – led him to outline a nosographic classification (derealistic psychoses vs realistic psychoses) intended to circumscribe the expression of the supernatural according to mental illnesses (1946). In light of his project, several questions were sorted out, articulating perspectives and limits with regard to the contemporary era. This article addresses aspects of the history of psychiatry based on various archives.