Paul Auguste Sollier (31 August 1861 – 8 June 1933) was a French doctor and

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

Life and career

Sollier was born in

Bléré Bléré () is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. Geography Cultural surroundings Bléré, in the administrative region of " Centre Val-de-Loire", is located 27 km from Tours, 225 km southwest of Paris, ...

Indre-et-Loire Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it ...

, France. While largely overlooked, Paul Sollier's writings are now being re-discovered, showing an extraordinarily modern conceptual thinking. Paul Sollier (1861–1933) at the time was considered the most gifted pupil of French neurologist

Jean-Martin Charcot Jean-Martin Charcot (; 29 November 1825 – 16 August 1893) was a French neurology, neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. He worked on hypnosis and hysteria, in particular with his hysteria patient Louise Augustine Gleizes. Charcot ...

, together with

Joseph Babinski Joseph Jules François Félix Babinski ( pl, Józef Julian Franciszek Feliks Babiński; 17 November 1857 – 29 October 1932) was a French-Polish professor of neurology. He is best known for his 1896 description of the Babinski sign, a pathologic ...

. Because of his interest in psychology, unique at the time for a

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

, but also his opposition to the leading figure in psychiatry

Pierre Janet Pierre Marie Félix Janet (; 30 May 1859 – 24 February 1947) was a pioneering French psychologist, physician, philosopher, and psychotherapist in the field of dissociation and traumatic memory. He is ranked alongside William James and ...

, Sollier was never well accepted by his contemporary neurologists and psychiatrists. He could not follow an academic career and was never elected to the

Académie de Médecine An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

, despite several applications. His scientific and clinical interests encompassed classical neurological syndromes but also hysteria, memory, emotions and mental retardation, where he was the precursor of the development of the intellectual ratio. Already in the 1890s, he developed cognitive behavioral therapies, which he applied to his most famous patient, French novelist

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...

. Proust largely inspired himself from Sollier's ''The Problem of Memory'' (1900) for his emphasis on

involuntary memory Involuntary memory, also known as involuntary explicit memory, involuntary conscious memory, involuntary aware memory, madeleine moment, mind pops and most commonly, involuntary autobiographical memory, is a sub-component of memory that occurs when ...

in his 1913–1927 novel ''

In Search of Lost Time ''In Search of Lost Time'' (french: À la recherche du temps perdu), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French ...

''. Sollier can be considered as one of the first

neuropsychologists Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Professionals in this branch of psychology often focus on how injuries or illnesses of ...

and deserves the present renewed interest in his work.

Works

* ''Sens musculaire'', 1887. * ''Du role de l'hérédité dans l'alcoolisme'', 1888. * ''Psychologie de l'idiot et de l'imbécile'', 1890. * ''Guide pratique des maladies mentales'', 1893. * ''Genèse et nature de l'hystérie'', 1897. * ''L'Hystérie et son traitement'', 1901. * ''Le Mécanisme des émotions. Leçons faites à l'Université nouvelle de Bruxelles'', 1903. * ''Les phénomènes d'autoscopie'', 1903.

References

* C.-E. Curinier, ''Dictionnaire national des contemporains''. 6 vols, 1889–1906.

External links

* 1861 births 1933 deaths French psychologists {{psychologist-stub