Psychiatric interpretations of the mystic experience from Bourneville to the present day.

Given the historical context, the author has considered the theological and medical interpretations of catholic mysticism since the end of the Second Empire, the various ways in which these interpretations have been in relative agreement, contradictory, or linked to one another, and has studied the example of certain women regarded as mystics by their associates. From the beginning of the Third Republic, medical interpretations were also made regarding these phenomena in addition to the religious approach. The former interpretations are now examined via a predominantly psychoanalytical approach. Three cases of Franciscan Tertiaries considered to show stigmata have been examined: Louise Lateau (1850-1883), Pauline Lair Lamotte (1853-1918) and Marthe Robin (1902-1931). They were respectively studied by three doctors, i.e., Desire Bourneville (1840-1909), Pierre Janet (1859-1947) and Gonzague Mottet. A Ph.D. dissertation on Marthe Robin by Bernard Vandewiele has also been included in the present review. These medical records have provided a topic for theological, medical and more recently psychoanalytical debate at different periods in history: 1) heated debates of a highly political nature at the beginning of the Third Republic before Freud's discoveries; 2) a progressive disintensification of attitude as a result of a more secular approach, leading to secularisation of the research into religion in general and mysticism in particular; 3) under the Fifth Republic, the observation of mystic utterances became progressively less limited by psychiatric nosology, with an increasing transparence in communication between the political, scientific and religious authorities that are instrumental in conditioning thought. (C) 1999 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.