The Radical Roots of Frantz Fanon’s Psychiatry

The Radical Roots of Frantz Fanon’s Psychiatry

In January 1940, a mustachioed Catalonian anarcho-communist arrived at the door of the Saint-Alban psychiatric asylum in the mountains of southwestern France. The doctor wore round spectacles; his wild, curly hair grew out sideways from a prematurely balding scalp. Francesc Tosquelles came with little more than a book in each of his pockets. In one was the work of an obscure German psychiatrist about therapeutic practice; in the other, the thesi…