Pierre Marie Felix Janet (1859-1947) French psychologist, psychiatrist and philosopher.
He studied at the Higher Normal School and the University of Paris, after which he began working in the field of psychopathology in Le Havre. He returned to Paris in 1890 and was appointed by Jean Martin Charcot to head the psychological laboratory at the Salpêtrière clinic. In 1902 (until 1936) he became professor of psychology at the College de France.
Continuing the work of the physician J. M. Charcot, he developed the psychological concept of neuroses, which, according to Jean, are based on violations of the synthetic functions of consciousness, a loss of balance between higher and lower mental functions. Unlike psychoanalysis, Janet sees in mental conflicts not a source of neuroses, but a secondary education associated with a violation of higher mental functions. The sphere of the unconscious is limited by him to the simplest forms of psychic automatisms.
In the 20‒30s. Janet developed a general psychological theory based on an understanding of psychology as a science of behavior. At the same time, unlike behaviorism, Janet does not reduce behavior to elementary acts, including consciousness in the system of psychology. Janet retains his views on the psyche as an energy system that has a number of levels of tension that correspond to the complexity of their corresponding mental functions. On this basis, Janet developed a complex hierarchical system of forms of behavior from the simplest reflex acts to higher intellectual actions. Janet develops a historical approach to the human psyche, emphasizing the social level of behavior; its derivatives are will, memory, thinking, self-consciousness. Janet connects the emergence of language with the development of memory and ideas about time. Thinking is genetically considered by him as a substitute for real action, functioning in the form of inner speech.
He called his concept the psychology of behavior, based on the following categories:
- «activity»
- «activity»
- «Action»
- “elementary, middle and higher tendencies”
- «psychic energy»
- «mental stress»
- «psychological levels»
- «psychological economy»
- «mental automatism»
- «psychic power»
In these concepts, Janet explained neurosis, psychasthenia, hysteria, traumatic reminiscences, etc., which were interpreted on the basis of the unity of the evolution of mental functions in phylogenesis and ontogenesis.
Janet’s work includes:
- «The mental state of patients with hysteria» (L’tat mental des hystriques, 1892)
- «Modern concepts of hysteria» (Quelques definitions recentes de l’hystrie, 1907)
- «Psychological Healing» (Les mdications psychologiques, 1919)
- «Psychological Medicine» (La mdicine psychologique, 1924) and many other books and articles.