Gaëtan Henri Alfred Edouard Léon Marie Gatian de Clérambault (2 July 1872 – 17 November 1934) was a
French psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...
.
Career
De Clérambault gained his thesis in 1899, later becoming an assistant
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
at the special infirmary for the insane,
Prefecture de Police (1905). From 1920 onward, he was head of this institution.
[''Gaétan Henri Alfred Edouard Léon Marie Gatian de Clérambault'']
at Who Named It
''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograph ...
Apart from his psychiatric studies, he was an acclaimed painter and wrote on the costumes of various native
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...
s.
[ He was also a professional ]photographer
A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs.
Duties and types of photographe ...
, from 1914 to 1918 he took around 30,000 photographs, some of the photos taken as part of a research project involving symptoms of hysteria. Many of his photos were later placed in the Musée de l'Homme
The Musée de l'Homme ( French, "Museum of Mankind" or "Museum of Humanity") is an anthropology museum in Paris, France. It was established in 1937 by Paul Rivet for the 1937 ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne' ...
. For a period of time, Clérambault conducted classes on the art of draped costumes at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts
The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Science ...
in Paris.[Gaétan Gatian de Clérambault, 1872–1934 – psychiatry in pictures]
Vladimir Lerner, MD, PhD and Eliezer Witztum, MD
For his actions during World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, de Clérambault was awarded with a cross of the Légion d'Honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
as well as the Croix de Guerre
The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...
.
He committed suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
by firearm on 17 November 1934 in Malakoff
Malakoff () is a suburban commune in the Hauts-de-Seine department southwest of Paris, France. Located from the centre of the city, it had a population of 30,286 in 2016. The European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE) is base ...
, a commune southwest of Paris. Famously, the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and pu ...
attributed his 'entry into psychoanalysis' as largely due to the influence of de Clérambault, whom he regarded as his 'only master in psychiatry'. Eugène Minkowski
Eugène (Eugeniusz) Minkowski (; 17 April 1885 – 17 November 1972) was a French psychiatrist of Jewish Polish origin, known for his incorporation of phenomenology into psychopathology and for exploring the notion of "lived time". A student of ...
and Henri Ey
Henri Ey (; 10 August 1900, Banyuls-dels-Aspres – 8 November 1977, Banyuls-dels-Aspres) was a French neurologist, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and philosopher.
Biography
Ey was born on 10 August 1900 in Banyuls-dels-Aspres, Pyrénées-Orientales, ...
were also deeply influenced by Clérambault's work in psychiatry. In 1942, one of his former pupils, Jean Fretet, published two volumes of Clérambault's works with the title "''Oeuvre Psychiatrique''". Clérambault's life and art are depicted in the film "Cry of Silk" (1996).[
He is credited with introducing the term "psychological (mental) automatism", proposing that the mechanism of mental automatism could be blamed for hallucinatory experiences. He divided mental automatisms into three types: associative, motor and sensitive.][ He considered the mental automatism to be the primary process of ]psychosis
Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior ...
while the delusional state was to be regarded as secondary. Clérambault is also credited with describing and cataloguing individual automatisms — there are considered to be around eighty distinct automatisms.
Associated syndromes
* de Clérambault's syndrome; (also called erotomania
Erotomania, also known as de Clérambault's Syndrome, named after French people, French psychiatrist Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault, is listed in the DSM-5 as a subtype of a delusional disorder. It is a relatively uncommon paranoia, paranoid cond ...
) a condition in which a person becomes deluded that a certain person of higher social status is in love with them. It was described by Clérambault in a treatise titled "''Les psychoses passionelles''" (1921).
* Kandinsky-Clérambault syndrome; a confusing clinical entity in which the patient believes his mind is being controlled by someone else or external forces. Named along with Russian physician Victor Khrisanfovich Kandinsky
Victor Khrisanfovich Kandinsky (russian: Виктор Хрисанфович Кандинский) (6 April 1849, Byankino, Nerchinsky District, Siberia – 3 July 1889, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian psychiatrist, and was 2nd cousin to famed arti ...
(1849–1889).[Kandinsky-Clérambault syndrome]
at Who Named It
Publications (selection)
* ''Contribution à l'étude de l'othématome (pathogénie, anatomie pathologique et traitement)''. Thèse Paris, 1899.
* ''Contribution à l'étude de la folie communiquée et simultanée'', 1903.
* ''Syndrome mécanique et conception mécanisiste des psychoses hallucinatoires''. Annales médico-psychologiques, Paris, 1927, 85: 398–413.[
* ''L'Automatisme mental par De Clérambault''; Département psychiatrique Théraplix, 1942 (with Jean Fretet).Google Search]
published works
* ''Oeuvre psychiatrique''. Paris, PUF, 1942 (2 vols.). Facs.ed.: ''Oeuvres psychiatriques''. Paris, Frénésie, 1987,
* Passion érotique des étoffes chez la femme, Montreuil-sous-bois, Les empêcheurs de penser en rond, 1991.
* "Mental automatisms. A conceptual journey into psychosis". Translation and commentaries y Paul Hrisoon the works of Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault. ayonne, N.J. Hermes Whispers Press, 2002. .
References
External links
Mental Automatisms, A conceptual journey into Psychosis
Catalogue of Automatisms.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clerambault, Gaetan Gatian
1872 births
1934 suicides
French psychiatrists
French photographers
People from Bourges
Suicides by firearm in France
1934 deaths