Félix Voisin was a French psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

 born in Le Mans

Le Mans

Le Mans is a city in France, located on the Sarthe River. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Mans. Le Mans is a part of the Pays de la Loire region.Its inhabitants are called Manceaux...

.

He studied medicine in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where in 1819 he earned his doctorate. He was a disciple of Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol

Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol

Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol was a French psychiatrist.Born and raised in Toulouse, Esquirol completed his education at Montpellier...

 (1772-1840), and a colleague of Jean-Pierre Falret

Jean-Pierre Falret

Jean-Pierre Falret was a French psychiatrist born in Marseille.In 1811 he began his medical studies in Paris, where he was inspired by the work of Philippe Pinel and Jean Étienne Dominique Esquirol...

 (1794-1870), with whom he founded a private mental institution at Vanves

Vanves

Vanves is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe and the tenth in France -History:...

 in 1822. Later he provided services for the mentally disabled at a hospice on the rue de Sèvres, relocating to the Bicêtre Hospital

Bicêtre Hospital

The Bicêtre Hospital is located in Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, which is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It lies 4.5 km from the center of Paris. The Bicêtre Hospital was originally planned as a military hospital, with construction begun in 1634. With the help of Vincent de Paul, it was...

 in 1840, where he worked with the mentally impaired until his retirement in 1865. One of Voison's better known assistants was educator Édouard Séguin

Edouard Seguin

Édouard Séguin was a physician and educationist who was born in Clamecy, Nièvre. He is remembered for his work with children having cognitive impairments in France and the United States....

 (1812-1880).

Voisin was a leading advocate of the phrenological

Phrenology

Phrenology is a pseudoscience primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules...

 theories of Franz Joseph Gall

Franz Joseph Gall

Franz Joseph Gall was a neuroanatomist, physiologist, and pioneer in the study of the localization of mental functions in the brain.- Life :...

 (1758-1828) and Johann Spurzheim

Johann Spurzheim

Johann Gaspar Spurzheim was a German physician who became one of the chief proponents of phrenology created approximately in 1800 by Franz Joseph Gall...

 (1776-1832), and along with Louis Delasiauve

Louis Delasiauve

Louis Jean Francois Delasiauve was a French psychiatrist who was a native of Garennes-sur-Eure. In 1830 he earned his doctorate in Paris, and for the next eight years practiced medicine in Ivry. Afterwards he worked at the Bicêtre Hospital, and later became a director at the Salpêtrière, where he...

 (1804-1893) and Jacques-Étienne Belhomme

Jacques-Étienne Belhomme

Jacques-Étienne Belhomme was a French psychiatrist who was a native of Paris. He was the son of carpenter Jacques Belhomme , who managed a maison de santé for the insane on Rue de Charonne in Paris....

 (1800-1880), he is considered to be one of the more prominent members in the French school of phrenology. Voison was particularly interested in the role phrenology could be used to understand the pathology

Pathology

Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....

 of mental retardation

Mental retardation

Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...

 and insanity

Insanity

Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...

. Voisin also did extensive research of satyriasis and nymphomania, and was interested in the relationship between hypersexuality and hysteria

Hysteria

Hysteria, in its colloquial use, describes unmanageable emotional excesses. People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to an overwhelming fear that may be caused by multiple events in one's past that involved some sort of severe conflict; the fear can be centered on a body part, or,...

.

In his 1851 treatise Analyse de l'entendement humain (Analysis of Human Understanding), Voisin described three major facets of human functionality, which he referred to as moral, intellect and animal factions. These classifications predated, and in a general sense are a parallel to the Freudian concepts of superego, ego and id

Id, ego, and super-ego

Id, ego and super-ego are the three parts of the psychic apparatus defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche; they are the three theoretical constructs in terms of whose activity and interaction mental life is described...

.

Selected writings

• 1826- Des causes morales et physiques des maladies mentales.
• 1839- De l’Homme animal.
• 1847- Du traitement intelligent de la folie et application de quelques uns de ses principes à la reforme des criminels.
• 1851 Analyse de l'entendement humain.