Jean-Pierre Falret

Jean-Pierre Falret (April 26, 1794 - October 28, 1870) was a French psychiatrist who was born in Marseille. He received his doctorate of medicine in 1819 and spent most of his career (1831-1867) at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris. In 1822 with Félix Voisin (1794-1872) he established a private mental institution in Vanves.

Falret is considered to be one of the more influential psychiatrists of 19th century France. He believed in the dualistic nature of the individual, and a separation of body and soul. He proposed that when the soul and a diseased condition interact, a phenomenon he called "novum organon" appeared. Accordingly, this manifestation of the "novum organon" created disturbances of the soul and caused mental illness. He believed that this mental condition could not be remedied by somatic treatment alone, but mainly through "psychic", moral methods.

Falret also studied depression and suicide, and noticed that patients experienced cycles of depression and elation. In 1854 he described a condition he called "circular insanity" where a patient would switch from a state of manic excitement to a state of severe depression. Falret's description is considered one of the earliest diagnoses of what today is known as a bipolar affective disease. Also with psychiatrist Ernest-Charles Lasègue he diagnosed a communal psychotic disorder that is sometimes referred to as the "Lasègue-Falret syndrome". This syndrome is characterized by the coincidental appearance of psychotic symptoms in family members while living together, as well as retention of the symptoms when the individuals are separated. This syndrome can also involve a situation where a diseased family member transmits psychotic symptoms to healthy members of the family. The two doctors published their findings in a treatise called "La folie à deux ou folie communiquée".

References

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