Clinical and Therapeutic Treatise on Hysteria

The second part of Gilles de la Tourette’s Traité de l’Hystérie, on “paroxysmic hysteria,” is a vast catalogue of numerous pathologies. The author analyzes select chapters on hysteria in children, hysterical sleep, and a series of pathologies erroneously attributed to hysteria (with adverse consequences for the patients). The chapter also examines Gilles de la Tourette’s efforts to establish a biological test for distinguishing hysteria from epilepsy. There are multiple references to works and theses of students and colleagues of Gilles de la Tourette and Charcot who today have been forgotten. This considerable compilation bears witness to Gilles de la Tourette’s prodigious capacity for hard work.