Alexandre Jacques François Brière de Boismont (often translated as ''Brierre de Boismont'' in English) (18 October 1797 – 25 December 1881) was a French physician and

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

born in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

. In 1825 he received his medical doctorate in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, afterwards working as a physician at the nursing home of Mme Marcel Sainte-Colombe, , Paris. In 1831 he performed important studies of a

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

epidemic in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, and in 1838 was appointed director of a private nursing home on Rue Neuve Sainte-Genevieve, located near the Panthéon de Paris. Beginning in 1859, he practiced medicine in

Saint-Mandé Saint-Mandé (; named for Saint Maudez) is a Communes of France, commune in the Val-de-Marne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France, in the high-end eastern inner suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre zero, cent ...

. Brière de Boismont was the author of numerous publications in several medical fields, that included

hygiene Hygiene is a set of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...

forensic medicine Forensic medicine is a broad term used to describe a group of medical specialties which deal with the examination and diagnosis of individuals who have been injured by or who have died because of external or unnatural causes such as poisoning, assa ...

and

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

, but is best known for his work in

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...

. In 1845 he published ''Des Hallucinations, ou Histoire raisonnée des apparitions, des visions, des songes, de l'extase, du magnétisme et du somnambulisme'', a landmark study of

hallucination A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the compelling sense of reality. They are distinguishable from several related phenomena, such as dreaming ( REM sleep), which does not involve wakefulness; pse ...

s, of which he considered were a significant part of mankind's psychological history. This book was later translated into English a
''Hallucinations: or, The rational history of apparitions, dreams, ecstasy, magnetism, and somnambulism''
(1853). In 1856 he published a comprehensive study on

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

, titled ''Du suicide et de la folie suicide''. With Jules Baillarger (1809–1890) and others, he was co-editor of ''Annales médico-psychologique''. In 1862, Brière de Boismont provided an early description of what would later become known as Kleine-Levin syndrome (KLS).

Publications

''Hallucinations or, the Rational History of Apparitions, Visions, Dreams, Ecstasy, Magnetism, and Somnambulism''
(1853)

References

* "Parts of this article are based on a translation of an equivalent article at the

French Wikipedia The French Wikipedia () is the French-language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. This edition was started on 23 March 2001, two months after the official creation of Wikipedia. It has :fr:Special:Statistics, encyclopedia artic ...

".
ILAB, "Des hallucinations"

@

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 bibliograp ...

Medical Times and Gazette
(obituary notice). {{DEFAULTSORT:Briere de Boismont, Alexandre Jacques Francois 1797 births 1881 deaths French psychiatrists 19th-century French physicians Physicians from Rouen French medical writers French sceptics 19th-century French writers 19th-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers