Georges Gilles de la Tourette

Who was Georges Gilles de la Tourette?

Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette was a French physician and the eponym of Tourette syndrome, a neurological condition. He was born in "the small town of Saint-Gervais-les-Trois-Clochers, in the district of Châtellerault near the city of Loudun, France", and died in Lausanne, Switzerland. He could be retrospectively classified as a neurologist, but the field did not exist in his time.

During 1873 Tourette began medical studies at Poitiers. He later relocated to Paris where he became a student, amanuensis and house physician of his mentor, the influential contemporary neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, director of the Salpêtrière Hospital. Charcot also helped him to advance in his academic career. Tourette studied and lectured in psychotherapy, hysteria and medical and legal ramifications of mesmerism.

Tourette described the symptoms of Tourette syndrome in nine patients in 1884, using the name "maladie des tics". Charcot renamed the syndrome "Gilles de la Tourette's illness" in his honor.

In 1893 a former female patient shot Tourette in the head, claiming he had hypnotized her against her will.