Cet article se propose d’aborder sous un angle sociohistorique les rapports entre psychiatrie et justice à travers un chapitre controversé introduit dans le Code civil suisse en 1978 : la « privation de liberté à des fins d’assistance ». Depuis lors, dans le canton de Vaud, la psychiatrie hospitalière doit composer – non sans résistances – avec la justice de paix, autorité tutélaire compétente pour ordonner cette mesure. Variant les échelles d’observation, il s’agira de reconstituer les mutations de leurs interactions locales.
This article takes a sociohistorical approach to the relationship between psychiatry and the justice system, starting from a controversial addition to the Swiss Civil Code in 1978: "inpatient civil commitment". Since that time, in the canton of Vaud, hospital psychiatric services have had to work – not without resistance – with the Justices of the Peace system authorised to impose this measure. Using different scales of observation, we will chart the mutations in their interactions at the local level.
This article takes a sociohistorical approach to the relationship between psychiatry and the justice system, starting from a controversial addition to the Swiss Civil Code in 1978: "inpatient civil commitment". Since that time, in the canton of Vaud, hospital psychiatric services have had to work – not without resistance – with the Justices of the Peace system authorised to impose this measure. Using different scales of observation, we will chart the mutations in their interactions at the local level.