I, Pierre RivieÌ#x80;re, having slaughtered my mother, my sister, and my brother-- : a case of parricide in the 19th century

To free his father and himself from his mother's tyranny, Pierre Rivi?re decided to kill her. On June 3,1835, he went inside his small Normandy house with a pruning hook and cut to death his mother, his eighteen-year-old sister, and his seven-year-old brother. Then, in jail, he wrote a memoir to justify the whole gruesome tale.Michel Foucault, author of Madness and Civilization and Discipline and Punish, collected the relevant documents of the case, including medical and legal testimony, police records. and Rivi?re's memoir. The Rivi?re case, he points out, occurred at a time when many professions were contending for status and power. Medical authority was challenging law, branches of government were vying. Foucault's reconstruction of the case is a brilliant exploration of the roots of our contemporary views of madness, justice, and crime. To free his father and himself from his mother's tyranny, Pierre Rivière decided to kill her. On June 3,1835, he went inside his small Normandy house with a pruning hook and cut to death his mother, his eighteen-year-old sister, and his seven-year-old brother. Then, in jail, he wrote a memoir to justify the whole gruesome tale.

Michel Foucault, author of Madness and Civilization and Discipline and Punish, collected the relevant documents of the case, including medical and legal testimony, police records. and Rivière's memoir. The Rivière case, he points out, occurred at a time when many professions were contending for status and power. Medical authority was challenging law, branches of government were vying. Foucault's reconstruction of the case is a brilliant exploration of the roots of our contemporary views of madness, justice, and crime.

To free his father and himself from his mother's tyranny, Pierre Riviere decided to kill her. On June 3,1835, he went inside his small Normandy house with a pruning hook and cut to death his mother, his eighteen-year-old sister, and his seven-year-old brother. Then, in jail, he wrote a memoir to justify the whole gruesome tale. Michel Foucault, author of Madness and Civilization and Discipline and Punish, collected the relevant documents of the case, including medical and legal testimony, police records. and Riviere's memoir. The Riviere case, he points out, occurred at a time when many professions were contending for status and power. Medical authority was challenging law, branches of government were vying. Foucault's reconstruction of the case is a brilliant exploration of the roots of our contemporary views of madness, justice, and crime Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 5 Foreward......Page 7 1. Crime and Arrest......Page 17 2. The Preliminary Investigation......Page 33 3. The Memoir......Page 67 4. Medico-legal Opinions......Page 136 5. The Trial......Page 151 6. Prison and Death......Page 184 II. Notes......Page 187 1. The Animal, the Madman, and Death......Page 189 2. Tales of Murder......Page 213 3. Existing Circumstances......Page 226 4. Regicide and Parricide......Page 233 5. The Parallel Lives of Pierre Riviere......Page 243 6. The Doctors and Judges......Page 264 7. The Intermittences of Rationality......Page 283 About the Editor......Page 303