The self and its brain.

In 1973 Philippe Pinel, physician in charge of the Bicetre asylum in Paris, literally removed the chains from his patients and ordered that they should be treated with kindness and understanding.1 This action reflected two important phenomena. One was the spirit of humanitarianism abroad in France at the time. The other was an emerging view of mental illness as a natural or biological phenomenon. Those afflicted were sick, they were mentally ill.