Gilbert Ballet

Gilbert Ballet (1853–1916)

Gilbert Ballet (March 29, 1853 – March 17, 1916) was a French psychiatrist, neurologist and historian who was a native of Ambazac in the department of Haute-Vienne.

He studied medicine in Limoges and Paris, and subsequently became Chef de clinique under Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893) at the Salpêtrière. In 1900 he became a professor of psychiatry, and in 1904 established the department of psychiatry at Hôtel-Dieu de Paris. In 1909 he succeeded Alix Joffroy as chair of clinical psychiatry and brain disorders at the Hôpital Sainte-Anne.^[1]

In 1909 Ballet was elected president of the Société française d'histoire de la médecine,^[2] and in 1912 became a member of the Académie des sciences.

Ballet is remembered for his 1903 publication of Traité de pathologie mentale, which remained a principal reference book on psychiatry for nearly fifty years in France. In 1911 Ballet described a disorder he called psychose hallucinatoire chronique, being defined as chronic delirium that consists primarily of hallucinations. In French psychiatry, "chronic hallucinatory psychosis" was to become classified as a distinct entity, separate from other self-delusional disorders.^[3][4]

Among his other works were an 1897 treatise on hypochondria and paranoia titled Psychoses et affections nerveuses,^[5] and an historical biography on philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg ("Swedenborg; histoire d'un visionnaire aux XVIIIe siècle"). With Adrien Proust, he published L'Hygiène du neurasthénique, a book that was later translated into English and published as "The Treatment of Neurasthenia".^[6]

Associated eponym

• "Ballet's sign": Palsy affecting one or more extraocular muscles, commonly associated with Graves' ophthalmopathy.^[7]

See also

• A Clinical Lesson at the Salpêtrière

References

• Parts of this article are based on a translation of an equivalent article at the French Wikipedia.
• Gilbert Ballet @ Who Named It

1. Notice biographique Histoire de la psychiatrie en France
2. Notice bio-bibliographique at Biu Santé
3. Schizophrenia edited by Steven R. Hirsch, Daniel R. Weinberger
4. A Historical Dictionary of Psychiatry by Edward Shorter
5. Gilbert Ballet - bibliography at Who Named It
6. The treatment of neurasthenia HathiTrust Digital Library
7. Elaine A. Moore (1 October 2003). Thyroid Eye Disease: Understanding Graves' Ophthalmopathy. Trafford Publishing. pp. 32–. ISBN 978-1-4120-0911-9. Retrieved 30 April 2012.