What if Michel Foucault was Alive or Herculine Barbin was in Istanbul?

Abstract

In 1976, the eminent philosopher Michel Foucault encountered a work written by the 19th century forensic scientist, Auguste Ambroise Tardieu, in the archives of the French Department of Public Hygiene. Tardieu's Question medico-legate de l'identite (1872) discusses the role of forensic science in the assignment of sex. The second edition of the book, which consists of fragments from the memoirs of Herculine Barbin, an intersex person (known as ``hermaphrodite{''} at the time), was published in 1874, accompanied by the full text of Barbin's handwritten memoirs. In the wake of his discovery of Tardieu's work and Herculine's memoir, Foucault edited the book, Herculine Barbin, dite Al exina B., consisting of the medico-legal documents, results of medical examinations, court documents, and press reports pertaining to Barbin's life in 1978. Two years later, when Foucault wrote an introduction to the book that was translated into English, Herculine's life reached a larger audience. Today, hundreds of books and articles in various disciplines, notably in queer and gender studies, refer to Herculine Barbin's name. The book edited by Foucault was published in Turkish last year, which was 41 years after its original publication. The Turkish edition of the book is significantly important because it introduces the reader to another forgotten name, Dr. Ibrahim Sevki. Ibrahim Sevki, an Ottoman physician, had already discovered the memoirs of Herculine Barbin about a hundred years ago before Foucault, and published it along with Tardieu's work in Turkish in 1885. This article aims to evaluate a 150-year-old story, within its historical context, and present Dr. Ibrahim Sevki whose work was discovered by the historian, Ebru Aykut, and introduced to the field of neuropsychiatry.