Charles Arthur Mercier

Charles Arthur Mercier (21 June 1851 – 2 September 1919) was a British psychiatrist and leading expert on forensic psychiatry and insanity.

Biography

Mercier was born on 21 June 1851. He studied medicine at the University of London where he graduated. He worked at Buckinghamshire County Asylum in Stone, near Aylesbury. He became the Assistant Medical Officer at Leavesden Hospital and at the City of London Asylum in Dartford, Kent. He also worked as a surgeon at the Jenny Lind Hospital. He was the resident physician at Flower House, a private asylum in Catford. In 1902 became a lecturer in insanity at the Westminster Hospital Medical School. He was also a physician for mental diseases at Charing Cross Hospital.

In 1894 Mercier was secretary of a committee of the Medico-Psychological Association. He published articles in the Journal of Mental Science. He joined the Medico-Legal Society in 1905, and became the president of the Medico-Psychological Association in 1908. Mercier has been described as a pioneer in the field of forensic psychiatry.

In 1917 Mercier wrote to the Mind Association denouncing politician-philosopher Lord Haldane and philosopher Bertrand Russell as traitors.

He was the author of many important works on crime, insanity, and psychology.

In 1916, Mercier criticized vegetarianism in The Lancet journal. Mercier suggested that vegetarians had an unbalanced mind and "we should expect, therefore, to find among vegetarians an undue proportion of insane persons."

Spiritualism

Mercier, who spent most of his career studying insanity and mental disorders, did not believe human personality could survive death.