Guillaume Ferrus

Guillaume-Marie-André Ferrus (2 September 1784 – 23 March 1861) was a French psychiatrist born in Château-Queyras, near Briançon, Hautes-Alpes.

With Pinel and Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol (1772–1840), Ferrus was a major force regarding reform of insane asylums in early and mid-19th century France.

He founded La Ferme Sainte-Anne, which was an innovative agricultural project designed as work therapy for mental patients.

[2] Ferrus believed that the vast majority of mental illnesses were due to a physical disorder, even if the problem was not anatomically apparent.

This viewpoint led to bitter disputes with physicians such as François Leuret (1797–1851), who maintained that somatic disorders were only occasionally the cause of mental illness.