Editing Philippe Pinel (section)

=== Treatments ===
{{more citations needed section|date=February 2013}}
Pinel developed specific practical techniques, rather than general concepts and assumptions. He engaged in therapeutic conversations to dissuade patients from delusions. He offered benevolent support and encouragement, although patients who persistently resisted or caused trouble might be threatened with incarceration or punishment if they were not able to control themselves.

Pinel argued that [[psychological intervention]] must be tailored to each individual rather than be based solely on the diagnostic category, and that it must be grounded in an understanding of the person's own perspective and history. He noted that "the treatment of insanity (l’aliénation mentale) without considering the differentiating characteristics of the patients [la distinction des espèces] has been at times superfluous, rarely useful, and often harmful", describing the partial or complete failures of some psychological approaches, as well as the harm that the usual cruel and harsh treatments caused to patients before they came to his hospital. He saw improvement as often resulting from natural forces within the patient, an improvement that treatment could at best facilitate and at worst interfere with.<ref name="Gerard1998" />

Pinel’s approach to medical treatments has been described as ambiguous, complex, and ambivalent. He insisted that psychological techniques should always be tried first, for example "even where a violent and destructive maniac could be calmed by a single dose of an antispasmodic [he referred to opium], observation teaches that in a great number of cases, one can obtain a sure and permanent cure by the sole method of expectation, leaving the insane man to his tumultuous excitement... ...and [furthermore] seeing, again and again, the unexpected resources of nature left to itself or wisely guided, has rendered me more and more cautious with regard to the use of medications, which I no longer employ—except when the insufficiencies of psychological means have been proven."

For those cases regarded as psychologically incurable, Pinel would employ baths, showers, [[opium]], [[camphor]] and other antispasmodics, as well as [[vesicant]]s, [[cauterization]], and [[bloodletting]] in certain limited cases only.<ref>Bangen, Hans: Geschichte der medikamentösen Therapie der Schizophrenie. Berlin 1992, Page 15 {{ISBN|3-927408-82-4}}</ref> He also recommended the use of [[laxatives]] for the prevention of nervous excitement and relapse.

Pinel often traced mental states to [[physiological]] states of the body, and in fact could be said to have practiced [[psychosomatic medicine]]. In general, Pinel traced organic causes to the [[gastrointestinal]] system and [[peripheral nervous system]] more often than to brain dysfunction. This was consistent with his rarely finding gross brain [[pathology]] in his post-mortem examinations of psychiatric patients, and his view that such findings that were reported could be correlational rather than causative.<ref name="Gerard1998" />