Jean-Martin Charcot, French Neurologist
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Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) was a French neurologist has been called "the father of French neurology" and one of the world's pioneers of neurology. He was known as an excellent medical teacher, and he attracted students from all over Europe. His focus turned to neurology when he took an interest in the malady then called hysteria. He believed that hysteria was the result of a weak neurological system which was hereditary. It could be set off by a traumatic event like an accident, but was then progressive and irreversible. To study the hysterics under his care, he learned the technique of hypnosis and soon became a master of the relatively new "science." Charcot believed that a hypnotized state was very similar to a bout of hysteria, and so he hypnotized his patients in order to induce and study their symptoms. He did not plan to cure them by hypnosis, in fact, he felt that only hysterics could be hypnotized. He would hypnotize patients for groups of students and others, gaining the nickname "the Napoleon of the neuroses."