Jean-Martin Charcot was born in 1825 in Paris, France. He was a neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. Charcot is one of the pioneers in neurology and various diseases and conditions are named after him, such as Charcot’s disease, Charcot’s joint, Charcot’s artery and Charcot’s fever.
He has an interesting epithet to his name- “The Napoleon of neurosis”. Neurosis is defined as a class of mental disorders which are functional in nature.
In the 19th century not much was known about the causes of mental illness and treatments were often barbaric and ill-judged. Charcot attempted to explain certain abnormal behaviours by categorizing them as ‘hysteria’ and his treatment involved the use of ‘hypnosis’.
Hypnosis is a condition involving reduced awareness, selective attention and a tendency to respond to suggestion. Hysteria was the term applied to patients who showed uncontrolled emotional distress.
Hysteria is no longer accepted as a medical diagnosis by doctors, but hypnotism is still considered an important tool in medicine.
Picture Credit : Google
