A New Perspective on Alfred Binet: Dramatist of Le Théatre De L’Horreur

Abstract

This paper discusses the major avocation of Alfred Binet. This avocation for which Binet was passioné was the theater—in all its aspects, and especially in his collaboration in writing psychological dramas “of horror and terror” which were produced in Parisian theaters. Binet is first introduced as the very versatile and original psychologist that he was, the first experimental psychologist in France, concerned significantly with cognitive problems in which human memory led him to recognize subtleties that made the theory of associationism insufficient to penetrate the conditions of human cognition. Parallels with present current viewpoints are indicated. Binet’s collaborated dramas deal with psychotics and are hair-raising. The author has translated and summarized several of them and includes insights—from Binet’s writings—of his own emotional pressures. The dramas also reveal some medical problems of his day.