Claude-François Michéa (14 March 181518 July 1882) was a French psychiatrist and the secretary of the Medico-Psychological Society in France. He is credited as "one of the first to modernise the theory of

perversion Perversion is a form of human behavior which is far from what is considered to be orthodoxy, orthodox or Normality (behavior), normal. Although the term ''perversion'' can refer to a variety of forms of ''deviation'', it is most often used to desc ...

s", as well as with publishing the "earliest paper that mentioned

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

in a psychiatric context". Michéa described homosexuality as "the presence of female organs in male bodies". He was also called to testify at the trial of

François Bertrand Sergeant François Bertrand (1823–1878), known as the Vampire of Montparnasse, was a sergeant in the French Army. He was arrested in 1849 for necrophilia and jailed for one year. In 1856, he moved to Le Havre. In his later life, he worked as cle ...

, where he argued that Bertrand's

necrophilia Necrophilia, also known as necrophilism, necrolagnia, necrocoitus, necrochlesis, and thanatophilia, is sexual attraction or acts involving corpses. It is classified as a paraphilia by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its ''International ...

was "the most extreme and most rare of the deviations of the sexual appetite". He died in

Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...

References

1815 births 1882 deaths 19th-century French physicians 19th-century French writers French psychiatrists Psychiatry academics {{France-psychiatrist-stub