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date: 14 February 2025

Jean-René Cruchet (1875–1959)locked

Jean-René Cruchet (1875–1959)locked

  • Olivier WalusinskiOlivier WalusinskiInternational Society for the History of the Neurosciences

Summary

Jean-René Cruchet (1875–1959) was a French physician from Bordeaux, where he practiced for the entirety of his career. His notoriety resulted from his publication of the first cases of the encephalitis lethargica epidemic in World War I soldiers in 1917, a few days before Constantin von Economo reported his cases. Cruchet developed an interest in abnormal movements, notably tics and dystonia, for which he primarily saw a psychological cause, to be treated rigorously with good habits and repressive precepts. He wrote prolifically about his areas of interest, also focusing on parkinsonian syndromes and the treatment of hysterics, notably soldiers with camptocormia. One of the first physicians to also be an aviator, Cruchet was a pioneer in the study of autonomic modifications caused by flying and pressure variations, which he referred to as aviator’s disease. As a personality with an outsized ego, he imagined that he would remain as famous after his death as Jean-Martin Charcot or Louis Pasteur.

Subjects

  • Disorders of the Nervous System
  • Motor Systems

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