Gilbert Ballet

Gilbert Ballet commenced his medical studies in Limoges, continued at the Paris hôpitaux as externe, respectively interne, and as Chef de clinique with Jean Martin Charcot at the Salpêtrière concerned himself extensively with neurology. After becoming Médecin des hôpitaux, and in 1886 professor agrégé, in 1907 he was appointed professor of medical history, in 1900 professor of psychiatry.

Ballet entered his scientific career in Paris in 1881 with the work Faiseceau sensitif intracérébral and a habilitation thesis on aphasia. He was one of the first to maintain a syphilitic aetiology of paralysis. As an historian he wrote biographies on the Christian mystic, philosopher, and theologian Emanuel Sweden Borg (1688-1772), on Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), and Marie Leszczynka (1703-1768), queen consort of King Louis XV of France (ruled 1715-74). Ballet was an ardent supporter of the teetotalist movement.

• Faiseceau sensitif intracérébral. Paris, 1881.
• Langage intérieur et les diverses formes de l’aphasia.
  Habilitation thesis, Paris, 1886.
• Psychoses et affections nerveuses. Paris, 1897.
  In this work Ballet presents some rather original ideas on hypochondria and paranoia.