Jean-Martin Charcot: biography of the pioneer of hypnosis and neurology

This scientist was particularly interested in a strange disorder of unknown causes: hysteria.

Jean-Martin Charcot was a French researcher and one of the pioneers of neurology, the branch of medicine that deals with hysteria.the branch of medicine that studies disorders of the nervous system. However, outside the field of this discipline, and in particular in the world of psychology, he is best known for his work on hysteria and hysteria in the field of neurology. his work on hysteria and hypnosis..

Charcot's contributions would not only be fundamental for the development of neurology, but would also constitute a key piece in the scientific development of psychiatry and in the emergence of Freudian psychoanalysis.

Who was Jean-Martin Charcot?

The neurologist and anatomopathologist Jean-Martin Charcot was born in Paris in 1825. He studied with Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne, who made great contributions to the fields of neurology and electrophysiology. Charcot is often considered the father of neurology, but his work was largely due to Duchenne's teachings.

For more than 30 years Charcot worked as a physician, researcher and teacher at the Salpêtrière School, which at that time functioned as a psychiatric center and housed approximately 5,000 patients. Sigmund Freud was one of the many students who learned from Charcot, who had achieved fame in the field of psychiatry.who had achieved fame throughout Europe.

In addition to his career at La Salpêtrière, Charcot was professor of pathological anatomy at the University of Paris, where he was appointed Director of Neurology. He died in 1893, at the age of 67, from a heart attack and pulmonary edema.

Hysteria in the 19th century

Hysteria was the most popular psychological disorder of the 19th century. This concept was used to encompass a broad set of neurotic a broad set of neurotic symptoms and went into decline with the consolidation of scientific psychology. The DSM-IV includes in the categories of dissociative and somatoform disorders manifestations that were previously categorized as hysteria.

Since the typical symptoms of hysteria, such as psychogenic convulsive seizures, were largely due to hysteria, the DSM-IV included in the categories of dissociative and somatoform disorders, were largely due to the suggestion popularization of certain cases, the prevalence of these disorders is very low today. Nevertheless, some somatoform disorders are still common, such as chronic pain and hypochondriasis.

For a long time it was believed that hysteria could only affect women because it was attributed to alterations in the uterus, but cases were also detected in men. In the 19th century hysteria was considered a physical disease of unknown origin, whereas previously many experts thought it was due to a moral or volitional deficiency.Previously, many experts thought it was due to a moral or volitional deficiency.

Initially Charcot thought that hysteria had hereditary Biological causes: he accepted the hypothesis of "neurological degeneration", very popular at the time. He later came to the conclusion that it was actually due to a traumatic event that injured the brain in a specific way. in a specific way. This would be the origin of Freud's thesis on hysteria.

Cure by hypnosis

In Charcot's time, the lack of efficacy and the aggressive the aggressiveness of the conventional therapeutic methods made them extremely questionable. In the case of hysteria, some of the usual "treatments" consisted of applying electric shocks, giving cold showers, inserting tubes through the rectum and even removing the ovaries.

This context favored the emergence and popularization of alternative therapies, such as alternative therapies such as hypnosiswhich developed from the outlandish methods of Franz Mesmer and was consolidated with the contributions of Charcot, James Braid and Pierre Janet, among others. The same happened with psychoanalysis, devised by Freud because of his limitations as a hypnotist.

Charcot proposed that hypnosis was useful to reproduce the symptoms of hysteria. At first he thought it could also be useful for treating this disorder, but his confidence in the method he helped to popularize diminished over time, especially due to the sensationalism that arose around hypnosis and which alienated it from the scientific community.

According to Charcot, the susceptibility to hypnosis itself denoted the neurological degeneration which was in turn the cause of hysteria. He later distinguished "grand hysteria" and "grand hypnosis", which were related to hereditary alterations, from "petit hysteria" and "petit hypnosis", due to the induction of a trance by suggestion.

Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault and Hippolyte Bernheim, of the School of Nancy, opposed the point of view of the "little hysteria" and "little hypnosis".opposed the point of view of Charcot and the other members of La Salpêtrière: for them, hysteria and hypnosis were exclusively due to suggestion. The disputes between the two schools damaged the reputation of hypnosis, which was already in question because of its acientificity.

Contributions to neurology

Although Charcot is best known for his contributions to hysteria and hypnosis, he devoted his life to neurology. He made a key contribution to scientific knowledge about Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and neuropathies in general.

Charcot described multiple sclerosis, which he called "plaque sclerosis".which he called "plaque sclerosis". For this author the main signs of the disease were nystagmus, intentional tremors and telegraphic speech; this is known today as "Charcot's triad". He also noted that memory and mental speed are impaired in people with multiple sclerosis.

There are several neuropathies that bear Charcot's name because he was the first to describe them or made important contributions in this regard. Of particular note are the Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome and Charcot's neuropathic joint disease (also called neuropathic arthropathy and diabetic foot), which affect the lower extremities.

On the other hand, "Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome" is the term used to describe the loss of the ability to dream. This disorder occurs as a consequence of lesions located in the occipital lobe that alter the recognition of faces and the memory of images.