Gilles
de la Tourette's syndrome A rare psycho neurological disorder
with onset in childhood, usually at the age of 7 to 10 years,
characterized by echolalia, pallilalia and coprolalia, a want
for touch, and stuttering.
Georges Albert Eduardo Brutus Gilles de la Tourette was born into
a medical family in Saint-Gervais-les-Trois-Clochers, a large
village in Poitou, in west-central France. He commenced medical
studies at Poitiers at the age of 16 years and subsequently moved
to Paris.
Gilles de la Tourette became extern in Paris 1879, doctor of medicine
and preparatory with Paul Camille Hippolyte Brouardel (1837-1906)
1885; 1893 medicine des hopitaux; 1896 chef de service; 1900 professor
agrege. He was one of Charcot's favorite pupils, his house physician
and his self-appointed amanuensis. Charcot in turn helped his
admiring pupil progressing steadily up the academic ladder. At
this early phase of his life a contemporary described him as "a
jovial and exuberant young man with a loud voice. Very ardent,
but not very patient because over-excited, he got worked up in
the most minor argument".
Leon Daudet (1867-1942), medical student and friend of Charcot's
son Jean, who subsequently became an explorer, encouraged Gilles
de la Tourette at the Salpetriere and described him as "ugly
like a Papuan idol with bundles of hair stuck on it". Gilles
de la Tourette had boundless energy and threw himself avidly into
new therapeutic techniques such as suspension, vibration and hypnotherapy.
Sigmund Freud attended Tourette's lectures during this period
and was possibly influenced by his work on hypnosis.
In 1896 (or 1893) shortly after the tragic death of his young
son and of his mentor Charcot, Gilles de la Tourette was shot
in the head in his consulting rooms by a paranoid young woman
who had been a patient at the Salpetriere. She claimed that she
had been hypnotized by Gilles de la Tourette against her will
causing her to lose her sanity. The bizarre episode became a "proces
celebre" seeming superficially to vindicate the Nancy School's
views that criminal suggestion was possible under hypnotism, a
view Gilles de la Tourette had vehemently rejected. Despite his
colorful life and varied achievements only an incomplete biographical
account by his friend Paul le Gendre, a few informative obituaries
and some caustic sketches by LéonDaudet exist.
Thereafter he fluctuated between depression and hypomania, his
publications became increasingly strident and unconventional and
he took to organizing public lectures on literary and theatrical
topics with himself as the major speaker.
A talented teacher and a prolific writer, Gilles de la Tourette
wrote and spoke publicly on a wide variety of topics, including
art, literature and mesmerism. He respected neither persons nor
conventions. He published an article on hysteria in the German
Army, disregarding the wrath of Bismarck and later drew public
attention to the deploring conditions on the British floating
hospitals moored on the river Thames.
Gilles de la Tourette's most substantial achievements were in
the study of hysteria and the medico-legal ramifications of hypnotism,
but he was also a competent neuropsychiatrist with a particular
interest in therapeutics. He was a dynamic, passionately outspoken
man whose prodigious literary output reflected his own restless
compulsions as well as the interests of his beloved chiefs Brouardel
and Charcot.
His love of Loudun, his ancestral home strongly influenced his
subject matter that included a biography of Theophraste Renaudot,
physician, social service- administrator and founder of France's
first newspaper, La Gazette (1631). With his colleague Gabriel
Legue, Gilles de la Tourette made a perceptive analysis of Soeur
Jeanne des Agnes' account of her hysterical illness induced by
her unrequited love for the Loudun priest Urbain Grandier, who
was burned on the stake for witchcraft. In 1902 Tourette's disturbed
behavior necessitated his removal from his professional post and
he died in a mental hospital in Lausanne in June, 1904.
Gilles
de la Tourette's syndrome
In
1884 Gilles de la Tourette, prompted by his mentor, Charcot, described
nine patients who were affected with compulsive tics. One of these
was the Marquise de Dampierre who had previously been reported
in 1825 by Itard. This aristocratic lady lived as a recluse and
"ticked and blasphemed", and the obituaries in the Paris
newspapers quoted some of the more colorful details of her description.Her
disturbances began when she was seven years old, and persisted
until her death at the age of 80 years, except for one year when
she visited Switzerland and married.
Gilles de la Tourette was a co-founder of the Nouvelle iconographie
de la Salpetriere. Charcot favored the euphonic eponym of "Gilles
de la Tourette" and this name was attached to the disorder.
During the closing years of the 19th century it was well documented
and extensively reported. However, from the turn of the century
to the mid 1900's it was rarely reported. It had seemed to disappear,
as interest was lost in this syndrome. In 1978 Shapiro and his
colleagues published a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary monograph.
Thereafter the Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome was accepted as
a specific entity, although controversy has persisted regarding
syndromic boundaries.
It has been suggested that several historic figures might have
been affected, including Prince Conde, a member of the French
royal family and Dr. Samuel Johnson, the British diarist. Samuel
Johnson is believed to have suffered from Gilles de la Tourette's
syndrome. Some authors also think that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791) had the syndrome, and that this explains his foul
mouth and his love of nonsense words.
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Georges
Albert Eduardo Brutus Gilles de la Tourette