Antoine Ritti (6 February 1844,
Strasbourg - 23 January, 1920,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
) was a
French psychiatrist.
Ritti, whose uncle was
Andreas Räss
André Raess (German: Andreas Räss) (6 April 1794, Sigolsheim, Haut-Rhin – 17 November 1887, Strasbourg) was an Alsatian Catholic Bishop of Strasbourg.
Life
After receiving his classical training at Sélestat and Nancy, Raess studied phil ...
, the
Bishop of Strasbourg
{{Unreferenced, date=December 2009
These persons were bishop, archbishop or prince-bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Strasbourg (including historically Prince-Bishopric of Strasbourg):
Bishops and prince-bishops
* Amandus
*Justinus ...
, seemed originally destined to become a priest. However he chose to take up a medical career. He began his training as a psychiatrist at the asylum of
Fains Meuse
The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...
. He became influenced by the ideas of
Auguste Comte becoming a
positivist.
In 1869 this time he published his first work, ''La Pensée Nouvelle''. Following the outbreak of the
Franco-Prussian war he left
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
for Paris, working at the
Lariboisière Hospital
Lariboisière Hospital (french: Hôpital Lariboisière) is a hospital in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, France.
The hospital was one of several built following the second cholera pandemic, which had reached Paris in 1832, and which led to a ...
during the
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
.
He obtained an in-house post at the
Charenton Asylum. In 1878 he was appointed to a doctor's office in
Charenton, a position he held until his retirement in 1909.
Ritti studied under
Jules Bernard Luys and applied Luys' anatomical-functional discoveries to develop a theory of the role of the
thalamus
The thalamus (from Greek θάλαμος, "chamber") is a large mass of gray matter located in the dorsal part of the diencephalon (a division of the forebrain). Nerve fibers project out of the thalamus to the cerebral cortex in all directions, ...
in the
pathophysiology of hallucinations.
For 38 years, from 1882 to 1920, Ritti was Secretary-General of the Medico-Psychological Society. During these years he wrote numerous eulogies and obituaries published in the ''Annales médico-psychologiques''.
Ritti is buried in
Père-Lachaise cemetery, in the tomb of the families Bouclier de la Fizelière. Here there is a bust of him by
Marthe de la Fizelière.
Works
* ''La Pensée Nouvelle'', (1869)
*
Théorie physiologique de l’hallucination', (1874) Thesis for a doctorate in medecine, No. N8C118, Paris
*
Le positivisme au congrès ouvrier', (1877), editor
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritti, Antoine
1844 births
1920 deaths
French psychiatrists
Positivists