Philippe Pinel (1745-1826), French physician and psychiatrist. Pinel arrived in Paris in 1778 and held various posts in hospitals and as Editor of a gazette on health. Following the death of a mentally ill friend in 1785, he devoted his life's work to mental illness. In 1795, he became chief physician of the Salpetriere Hospice in Paris. Pinel pioneered the humane treatment of the mentally ill by releasing them from their chains. His 1801 book Traite medico-philosophique sur l'aleniation mentale; ou la manie, which was translated and published in English in 1806 as a Treatise on Insanity.