Jean-Martin Charcot

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Born in Paris, Charcot worked and taught at the famous Salpêtrière Hospital for 33 years. His reputation as an instructor drew students from all over Europe. In 1882, he established a neurology clinic at Salpêtrière, which was the first of its kind in Europe. Charcot was a part of the French neurological tradition and studied under, and greatly revered, Duchenne de Boulogne. He married a rich widow, Madame Durvis, in 1864 and had three children: Jeanne, Jean-Paul and Jean-Baptiste, who later became a doctor and a famous polar explorer. He has been described as an atheist. Charcot's primary focus was neurology. He named and was the first to describe multiple sclerosis, calling the disease sclérose en plaques. The three signs of multiple sclerosis now known as Charcot's triad 1 are nystagmus, intention tremor, and telegraphic speech, though these are not unique to MS. He was also the first to describe a disorder known as Charcot joint or Charcot arthropathy. In collaboration with his student Albert Pitres, Charcot conducted studies on the cerebral localisations, which enabled the identification of motor cortex areas, and demonstrated that motor cortex lesions lead to degeneration of the pyramidal tracts. Charcot was among the first to describe Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease (CMT), announced simultaneously with Pierre Marie and Howard Henry Tooth. His studies between 1868 and 1881 were a landmark in the understanding of Parkinson's disease; he made the distinction between rigidity, weakness and bradykinesia, and led the disease formerly named paralysis agitans to be renamed after James Parkinson. Charcot received the first European professional chair of clinical diseases for the nervous system in 1882. Charcot is best known today for his work on hypnosis and hysteria, especially with his patient Louise Augustine Gleizes, who somewhat increased his fame during his lifetime; however, Marie "Blanche" Wittmann, known as the Queen of Hysterics, was his most famous hysteria patient at the time. He initially believed that hysteria was a neurological disorder for which patients were pre-disposed by hereditary features of their nervous system, but near the end of his life he concluded that hysteria was a psychological disease. He argued vehemently against the prejudice that hysteria was rarely found in men, presenting several cases of traumatic male hysteria. The Salpêtrière School's position on hypnosis was sharply criticized by Hippolyte Bernheim, who argued that the hypnosis and hysteria phenomena that Charcot had famously demonstrated were in fact due to suggestion. However, Charcot himself had had longstanding concerns about the use of hypnosis in treatment and about its effect on patients.

Reader's Guide

Charcot's greatest legacy as a clinician is his contribution to the development of systematic neurological examination, correlating a set of clinical signs with specific lesions. This was made possible by his pioneering long-term studies of patients, coupled with microscopic and anatomic analysis derived from eventual autopsies. This led to the first clear delineation of various neurological diseases and classic description of them, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He established the first neurology clinic in Europe in 1882 and trained many influential figures, including Sigmund Freud, Joseph Babinski, Jean Leguirec, Pierre Janet, William James, Pierre Marie, Albert Londe, Charles-Joseph Bouchard, Georges Gilles de la Tourette, Alfred Binet, and Albert Pitres. Charcot bestowed the eponym for Tourette syndrome in honor of his student, Georges Gilles de la Tourette. Distorted views of Charcot as harsh and tyrannical have arisen from some sources that rely on a fanciful autobiographical novel by Axel Munthe, The Story of San Michele (1929). Munthe claimed to have been Charcot's assistant, but in fact, Munthe was just a medical student among hundreds of others. Charcot's son Jean-Baptiste Charcot emphatically stated that Munthe never was trained by his father and that everything Munthe says about professor Charcot is false. Bengt Jangfeldt, in his 2008 biography, states that "Charcot is not mentioned in a single letter of Axel's out of the hundreds that have been preserved from his Paris years" (p. 96).

Did You Know?

• Charcot named and was the first to describe multiple sclerosis, calling it sclérose en plaques.
• He was among the first to describe Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease, announced simultaneously with Pierre Marie and Howard Henry Tooth.
• His studies between 1868 and 1881 led to the disease formerly named paralysis agitans being renamed after James Parkinson.
• Charcot's most famous hysteria patient was Marie 'Blanche' Wittmann, known as the Queen of Hysterics.
• Distorted views of Charcot as harsh and tyrannical arose from a fictionalized autobiography by Axel Munthe, who was never actually Charcot's assistant.