[Charles Durand, Charles Daremberg and Gérard Marchant, or the patient, the historian of medicine and the psychiatrist].

Between 1850 and 1870, a pathetic patient by the name of Charles Durand meets the famous historian of medicine Charles Daremberg and the dedicated psychiatrist Georges Marchant. Thus, relying upon every day life events, the authors tell the story of French psychiatry for the generation that came after the 1838 law on Mental Patient Care.