The legacy of Pierre Janet: an early paradigm for evidence-based psychotherapy

Abstract

The importance of the research on psychotraumatic illnesses by the French psychologist Pierre Janet (1859-1947) has been recognised again in recent decades. The present article deals with a still comparatively little-known part of his work, namely his vision of psychotherapy, which he presented in three volumes in 1919 (Les médications psychologiques). It was also translated into English already in 1925 (Psychological Healing, 2 vols.) and appeared 1923 in a shortened version (La médicine psychologique'; Principles of Psychotherapy 1924).  In it, he proposes a scientifically based psychotherapy that, on the one hand, considers the limited knowledge about mental disorders and their treatment, which has to be improved by research into mental disorders and their treatment and should seek to integrate conventional treatment approaches also. On the other hand, he offered a first systematic approach to disorder-specific treatments based on clinical experience (several hundred treatment cases) and theoretical concepts (Janet's ‘psychology of conduct’). This view displays a fundamentally astonishing similarity in its requirements with the evidence-based paradigm of today's psychotherapies. It can be considered as an alternative paradigm to the at that time already established psychoanalysis.  Historically, a comparable alternative was only effectively established in the form of cognitive-behavioural therapy in the 1970s, without Janet's earlier anticipation being noted. The article presents essential features of Janet's research endeavours and relates them to current ideas in psychotherapy.

Keywords: evidence-based psychotherapy, disorder-specific treatments, history of psychotherapy, Pierre Janet.