Søvn i grenseland: Henri Piérons Le problème physiologique du sommeil i kontekst

Abstract

This paper is an examination of the French psychologist Henri Piéron’s (1881 – 1964) doctoral thesis in scientific psychology, Le problème physiologique du sommeil (1912). In this thesis Piéron set out to study sleep experimentally, and to develop a complete theory of the origin, function and mechanism of normal sleep. By conducting several experiments on dogs, he ar- rived at the conclusion that sleep is connected to a chemical substance in the cerebrospinal fluid. In this paper I examine, based on Le problème physiologique du sommeil, whether Piéron’s project can be understood as a critical project, and what contexts it can be seen as part of. I do this by identifying boundary-work in the text, defined by the American sociologist Thomas F. Gieryn as work which intends to draw boundaries for what can be considered as scientific or not. I argue that Piéron can be understood to belong to a tradition that was critical of metaphys- ics. Specifically, I argue that in Le problème physiologique du sommeil, there can be found both explicit and implicit critiques aimed at spiritualism, a philosophic doctrine that for several years had exercised great influence over the French educational system, and spiritism, a broad, cultur- al movement where belief in spirits, the immortality of the soul and telepathy where central. I argue that the content of Le problème physiologique du sommeil can be understood in light of these contexts, and that the beliefs of the spiritualists and the spiritist are views Piéron wants to expel from the definition of science. Piérons positive definition of science is experimental and materialistic. This is expressed through the different traditions of knowledge Piéron draws upon in his thesis, such as biology and evolutionism. In this way, Le problème physiologique du sommeil, a scientific thesis on sleep, is in this way informed by broader currents in the debate around science, mind and free will in France during the period from the late 19th century up to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.