Jean-Pierre Falret, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJean-Pierre Falret
French psychiatrist
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Marcilhac-sur-Célé, Occitania, France
About Jean-Pierre Falret
- Jean-Pierre Falret (French: [??~ pj?? fal??]; 26 April 1794 – 28 October 1870) was a French psychiatrist.
- He was born and died in Marcilhac-sur-Célé.In 1811 he began his medical studies in Paris, where he was inspired by the work of Philippe Pinel (1745–1826) and Jean Étienne Dominique Esquirol (1772–1840).
- In 1819 he obtained his medical doctorate, afterwards establishing a mental institution with Félix Voisin (1794–1872) at Vanves (1822).
- In 1831 he was appointed chef de l’hospice at the Salpêtrière, a position he maintained until his retirement in 1867. In 1851 he published an article describing a condition he called la folie circulaire (French pronunciation: ?[la f?li si?.ky.l??] – circular insanity), of which a patient would experience cycles of manic excitement and cycles of depression.
- Falret's description is considered to be the earliest documented diagnosis of what today is known as a bipolar affective disorder.Falret 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. With psychiatrist Ernest-Charles Lasègue (1816–1883), he identified a shared psychotic disorder sometimes referred to as "Lasègue-Falret syndrome" (folie à deux).
- The 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.Today the Le Centre Hospitalier Jean-Pierre Falret is a psychiatric hospital system serving the department of Lot.
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