Léon Chertok or Lejb Tchertok (31 October 1911 in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, Vilna Governorate – 6 July 1991 in

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), was a French

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 ...

known for his work on hypnosis and

psychosomatic medicine Psychosomatic medicine is an interdisciplinary medical field exploring the relationships among social, psychological, behavioral factors on bodily processes and quality of life in humans and animals. The academic forebearer of the modern field o ...

Biography

Chertok obtained his doctorate in medicine in

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in 1938. He came to Paris in 1939, and joined the

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

. He was awarded the

Croix de Guerre The (, ''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 awarded during World ...

. In 1947 he worked in a psychiatric ward at Mount Sinai Hospital in

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, in a psychosomatic unit directed by the psychoanalyst Lawrence Kubie. When back in France he underwent analysis with

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 Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...

from 1948 until 1954. From 1948 to 1949 he worked as an assistant for Marcel Montassut at the psychiatric hospital in Villejuif. In 1950 he organized the center for psychosomatic medicine at Villejuif, with Victor Gachkel; also visited by Franz Alexander. During this period he did voluntary work under the urologist Pierre Aboulker. In the 1950s he went to the USA and let himself be hypnotized by

Milton Erickson Milton Hyland Erickson (5 December 1901 – 25 March 1980) was an American psychiatrist and psychologist specializing in medical hypnosis and family therapy. He was the founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. He is not ...

, and in Germany by

Johannes Heinrich Schultz Johannes Heinrich Schultz (20 June 1884 – 19 September 1970) was a German psychiatrist and psychotherapist. Schultz is known for the development of autogenic training. Life He studied medicine in Lausanne, Göttingen (where he met Karl Jas ...

. It was at this time that he met the psychoanalyst Raymond de Saussure and the specialist on

animal magnetism Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, is a theory invented by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century. It posits the existence of an invisible natural force (''Lebensmagnetismus'') possessed by all living things, including humans ...

Robert Amadou. In 1957 he took part in the founding of the French society of psychosomatic medicine, with Michel Sapir and Pierre Aboulker. In 1959, he gave his first lecture on hypnosis for psychoanalysts under the auspices of Henri Ey's society L'évolution psychiatrique. The end of the 1970s and the 1980s was marked by his exchanges with philosophers such as

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, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen,

Michel Henry Michel Henry (; ; 10 January 1922 – 3 July 2002) was a French philosopher, phenomenologist and novelist. He wrote four novels and numerous philosophical works. He also lectured at universities in France, Belgium, the United States, and Jap ...

and Isabelle Stengers. Chertok found that the psychoanalysts neglected the practice and phenomenon of hypnosis, and thus made himself an object of fierce criticism from their side. He underwent, as mentioned, analysis with Jacques Lacan, and was a student of Francis Pasche, but he was not accepted as a member of the Societe Psychanalytique de Paris. Chertok also had some contact with Soviet psychiatrists. His position as a "heretic" led to his isolation and to the neglect of his ideas concerning hypnosis, thus favoring the Ericksonian school. In several books and papers written in collaboration with Isabelle Stengers Chertok repeatedly criticized traditional psychoanalysis and its institutions.

Works

* ''Psychosomatic methods in painless childbirth'', 1959 * ''Hypnosis'', 1966 * ''Psychophysical mechanisms of hypnosis'', 1969 * ''Psychotherapeutic action of doctors'', 1973 * ''The therapeutic revolution - from Mesmer to Freud'', 1979, with Raymond de Saussure * ''Sense and Nonsense in Psychotherapy: Challenge of Hypnosis'', 1981

References

* Elisabeth Roudinesco
''Jacques Lacan & Co: A History of Psychoanalysis in France, 1925-1985''
University of Chicago Press, 1990, p. 644. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chertok, Leon 1911 births 1991 deaths Physicians from Vilnius Soviet emigrants to France French psychiatrists Recipients of the Croix de Guerre (France) French Resistance members Analysands of Jacques Lacan 20th-century French physicians