The Bicêtre Hospital is located in Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France.

With the help of Vincent de Paul, it was finally opened as an orphanage in 1642.

[1] In its history it has been used successively and simultaneously as an orphanage, a prison, a lunatic asylum,[2] and a hospital.

[5] The Bicêtre is most famous as the Asylum de Bicêtre where Superintendent Philippe Pinel is credited as being the first to introduce humane methods into the treatment of the mentally ill, in 1793.

[citation needed] The Bicêtre is referenced in the last chapter of Foucault's Madness and Civilisation titled "The Birth of the Asylum."