Gilbert Ballet

{{Short description|French psychiatrist, neurologist and historian}}

File:Gilbert Ballet.jpg

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.[http://psychiatrie.histoire.free.fr/pers/bio/ballet.htm Notice biographique] Histoire de la psychiatrie en France

In 1909 Ballet was elected president of the Société française d'histoire de la médecine,[http://www.biusante.parisdescartes.fr/histoire/biographies/index.php?cle=804 Notice bio-bibliographique at Biu Santé] and in 1912 became a member of the Académie des sciences.

Ballet is remembered for his 1903 publication of [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/005699453 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.[https://books.google.com/books?id=_JNTS5hNQywC&dq=%22Chronic+hallucinatory+psychosis%22+Ballet&pg=PA58 Schizophrenia] edited by Steven R. Hirsch, Daniel R. Weinberger[https://books.google.com/books?id=juAJCAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Chronic+hallucinatory+psychosis%22+Ballet&pg=PT165 A Historical Dictionary of Psychiatry] by Edward Shorter

Among his other works were a 1888 publication on inner speech in aphasia, Le Langage Interieur et les Diverses Formes de l'Aphasie,https://pure.mpg.de/rest/items/item_2272804_4/component/file_2272803/content an 1897 treatise on hypochondria and paranoia titled Psychoses et affections nerveuses,[http://www.whonamedit.com/person_bibliography/658/ Gilbert Ballet - bibliography] at Who Named It 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".[http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100479203?type%5B%5D=author&lookfor%5B%5D=%22Ballet%2C%20Gilbert%2C%201853-1916.%22&ft= The treatment of neurasthenia] HathiTrust Digital Library