Édouard Toulouse (1865–1947) was a French psychiatrist, journalist, and director of the literary magazine Demain. He was born in Marseille on 10 December 1865 and died in Paris 19 January 1947.
Career
As a young man, Toulouse worked for a number of newspapers in Marseille as a drama critic.
He later headed the Clinic for Mental Illness at the Paris Faculty.[1]:14 Toulouse believed artistic creativity had an important role to play in psychological treatment. He considered himself a novelist, 'and said that he had come to science through literary activity'[1]:14 In 1896 he conducted a survey of men of exceptional genius where he profiled writer Émile Zola and French luminaries to identify shared, explainable characteristics. Following this project, Toulouse was named the director of a modern clinic in the Parisian suburb of Villejuif in 1898.[2]
In 1912 he established the fortnightly literary journal Demain, which covered a wide array of topics.[2] A number of important figures worked on the journal, including Antonin Artaud and Jean Paulhan.[2]
At the beginning of World War I, Toulouse conducted a survey of asylum care in France, and looked to "transform asylums of confinement into hospitals of mental health care."[2]
He founded the League of Hygiene and Mental Prophylaxis in December 1920[1]:14
References