René Semelaigne

Louis-René Semelaigne was the son of Armand Semelaigne and, by his mother, the grandson of Casimir Pinel (1800-66), himself the younger brother of Philippe Pinel, internal medicine doctor at Paris hospitals in 1883. René Semelaigne devoted his medical thesis to his illustrious ancestor, Philippe Pinel and his work on mental illness. He supported his thesis on 22 March 1888 before a jury chaired by Professor Benjamin Ball (1833-93), for which he had been an intern.

Semelaigne then worked until his retirement at the Maison de Santé, located in Neuilly-sur-Seine in the former “Folie” Saint-James. Semelaigne has dedicated several important works to the history of mental illness, notably in 1894 Les grands aliénistes français, in 1912 Aliénistes et philanthropes, and in 1930 and 1932 the two volumes of Les pionniers de la psychiatrie française avant et après Pinel. He chaired the Société Médico-psychologique in 1913. Louis-René Semelaigne was the brother of Casimir Semelaigne and Fernand Semelaigne, who competed in the 1900 fencing competitions.