Dictionnaire Biographique

Abstract

Gustave Étoc–Demazy (1806–1893), one of the brilliant students of Guillaume Ferrus (1784–1861) at Bicêtre Hospital, spent his long career as an alienist directing the asylum in Le Mans, recently constructed when he arrived in 1834. His modest posthumous fame, reaching beyond the Sarthe region, is worth highlighting, on the basis of his doctoral thesis on stupidity, for example, which was an early milestone of his research throughout the 19th century on acute (mental) confusion. Following a short biography and an analysis of his inaugural work, we review some of his publications on subjects such as suicide and the alienist’s role in the administration of justice. C 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. Disponible en ligne sur