André Matthey

Jacques André Matthey (born July 17, 1779 in Geneva ; † February 2, 1842 there ) was a Swiss doctor . The concept of “ kleptomania ” goes back to him .

Life

The son of the builder Pierre-David Matthey studied medicine in Paris, where he received his doctorate in 1802 on the treatment of inflammatory febrile diseases. He settled in Geneva as a doctor and worked at the Hôpital général from 1805. Due to health problems, he could no longer practice from 1814. Until 1838 he worked as the medical inspector of the baths of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains in the Haute-Savoie . He published on medical pathology, spa studies and mental illnesses. A work on mental disorders published in 1816 became particularly well known. Obviously influenced by Philippe Pinel's doctrine of “manie sans délire”, he coined the term “pathomania” and defined it as “perversion de la volonté et des penchants naturels sans lésion apparente des fonctions intellectuelles” (as a reversal of will and natural inclinations without obvious ones Disorder of the mind functions). According to Matthey, one form of "pathomania" was "klopémania", which later became " kleptomania " with Charles Chrétien Henry Marc .

The concept of "pathomania" was subsequently developed by Jean Étienne Esquirol into monomania .

Fonts

• Nouvelles recherches sur les maladies de l'esprit précédées considérations sur les difficulté de l'art de guérir. Paris, 1816.

literature

• HE. Müllener, Six Geneva Physicians on Meningitis . In: Journal of the History of Medicine 20 (1965), pp. 1-26.
• T. Müller: Impulse control disorders - old wine in new bottles? . In: R. Baer, P. Joraschky , WP Kaschka and RJ Witkowski (eds.): Ways of psychiatric research . Perimed, Erlangen 1990.
• August Hirsch (Hrsg.): Biographical lexicon of the outstanding doctors of all times and peoples . 2nd edition, Volume 4, Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin [among others] 1932.
• Vincent Barras: Jacques André Matthey. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .