Georges Gilles de la Tourette
Born	30 October 1857(1857-10-30) Saint-Gervais-les-Trois-Clochers, Vienne, France
Died	26 May 1904 (aged 46) Lausanne, Switzerland
Known for	Tourette syndrome

Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette (30 October 1857 – 26 May 1904) was a French neurologist who is the eponym of Tourette syndrome, a neurological condition.^[1]

During 1873 Tourette began medical studies at Poitiers. He later relocated to Paris where he became a student, amanuensis and house physician of his mentor, the influential contemporary neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, director of the Salpêtrière Hospital. Charcot also helped him to advance in his academic career. Tourette studied and lectured in psychotherapy, hysteria and medical and legal ramifications of mesmerism (modern-day hypnosis).^[1]

Tourette described the symptoms of Tourette syndrome in nine patients in 1884, using the name "maladie des tics". Charcot renamed the syndrome "Gilles de la Tourette's illness" in his honor.^[1]

During 1893 (or 1896) a former female patient shot Tourette in the head, claiming he had hypnotized her against her will. Both Tourette and many modern hypnologists state that this is impossible. His mentor, Charcot, had died recently, and his young son had also died recently. After these events he began to have mood changes between depression and hypomania. Nevertheless, he organized public lectures during which he spoke about literacy, mesmerism and theatre.^[1]

Tourette published an article on hysteria in the German Army, which angered Bismarck, and a further article about unhygienic conditions in the floating hospitals on the river Thames. With Gabriel Legue he analyzed abbess Jeanne des Anges' account of her hysteria that was allegedly based on her unrequited love for a priest Urbain Grandier, who was later burned for witchcraft.^[1]

Around 1902 Tourette's condition worsened and he was dismissed from his post. Gilles de la Tourette died on 26 May 1904 in a psychiatric hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland.^[1]

[edit] Writings

• L'hypnotisme et les états analogues au point de vue médico-légal (Paris, 1887; 2nd. edition Paris 1889)
• Traité clinique et thérapeutique de l’hystérie d’après l’enseignement de la Salpêtrière (Paris 1891)
• Les actualités médicales, les états neurasthéniques (Paris 1898)
• Leçons de clinique thérapeutique sur les maladies du système nerveux (Paris 1898)
• Les actualités médicales. Formes cliniques et traitement des myélites syphilitiques' convulsifs (La semaine médicale 1899)

[edit] References

• Black, KJ. Tourette Syndrome and Other Tic Disorders. eMedicine (22 March 2006). Retrieved on 27 June 2006.
• Lees. A.J. Georges Gilles de la Tourette: The Man And His Times (Paris 1986)
• Georges Gilles de la Tourette: The Man And His Times. Tourette Syndrome Association. Retrieved on 9 September 2007.

v • d • e Topics related to Tourette syndrome Main Causes and origins · History · Sociological and cultural aspects · Treatment Terms Coprolalia · Copropraxia · Echolalia · Echopraxia · Palilalia · PANDAS · Sensory phenomena · Tic · Tic disorder · Tourettism History Jean-Martin Charcot  · Georges Gilles de la Tourette  · Jean Marc Gaspard Itard  · Arthur K. Shapiro Organizations Tourette Syndrome Association · Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada · Tourettes Action Media I Have Tourette's but Tourette's Doesn't Have Me · John's Not Mad · "Le Petit Tourette" · Maze · Motherless Brooklyn · Quit It · The Tic Code Notable people Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf · Howard Ahmanson, Jr · Basshunter · Pete Bennett · Brad Cohen · Jim Eisenreich · Tim Howard · Samuel Johnson · André Malraux · Tobias Picker · Nick van Bloss · Michael Wolff

Persondata
NAME	Gilles de la Tourette, Georges Albert Édouard Brutus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	French physician
DATE OF BIRTH	30 October 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH	Saint-Gervais-les-Trois-Clochers, France
DATE OF DEATH	26 May 1904
PLACE OF DEATH	Lausanne, Switzerland