Presentation

Born on January 7, 1911 in Bilbao (Spanish Basque Country). Died in Villefranque, near Bayonne, on March 23, 1993.

Born into a rural Spanish Basque family, he was educated in Deusto, near Bilbao, by the Brothers of the Christian Schools, then at the lycée. He learned French during summer vacations, before leaving for Paris at the age of 16. In 1945, he married France Alberti, of Corsican origin, with whom he had two children: Mikel (b. 1948) and Isabelle (b. 1953).

Education and professional career

  • 1927-1933: Studies medicine in Paris. Lodges at the Catholic student hostel on rue Madame.
  • 1930: Intern at Paris hospitals.
  • 1933-1936: Passes the competitive examination for internship at the psychiatric hospitals of the Seine, and takes up an internship at Sainte-Anne
  • 1933-1950: Foreign doctor status. As such, he was housed and fed within the hospital, but not remunerated, which meant he had to fill in as a nurse (forbidden at the start of the war by a decree issued by Pétain) and give internship lectures. He attended lectures by André-Thomas, Jean Lhermitte, Paul Guiraud, Louis Marchand, Henri Claude, Pierre Janet, Gaëtan de Clérambault... and rubbed shoulders with intellectuals and artists, many of them Surrealists such as Dominguez, Éluard, Bunuel, Breton, etc., who met regularly in the on-call room at Hôpital Sainte Anne. At the same time, he pursues his medical studies in Spain, where he sits the September exams at the University of Valladolid, then Salamanca, but is unable to pass the final exams because of the civil war.
  • 1936: Doctorate in Medicine, thesis: La douleur dans les affections du système nerveux central, prefaced by Jean Lhermitte
  • 1938-1946: Assistant to Jean Lhermitte at the Laboratory of Anatomy of the Nervous System.
  • Collaborated with André-Thomas at Hôpital Saint Joseph and Hôpital Port-Royal
  • Consultant physician at Henri Rousselle Hospital (Centre Hospitalier Sainte Anne)
  • Active member of the "Batia" group, at the origin of the "sectorisation" of psychiatry in France
  • 1942-1945: Resistance activist
  • 1946: Appointed Associate Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry, with foreign appointment
  • 1946-1959: With René Diatkine, creates a "Team for research and rehabilitation of psychomotor and language disorders" at Henri Rousselle Hospital, later taken over by Jean Bergès
  • Consultant physician in child neuropsychiatry at the Centre neurochirurgical des hôpitaux psychiatriques de la Seine. He founds and runs a pathological anatomy laboratory with David, Lhermitte and Talairach
  • 1948: Stays in Belgium with Hécaen at Professor Van Bogaert's Bunge Institute in Antwerp
  • 1949-1952: Didactic analysis with Sacha Nacht
  • 1950: Having obtained French nationality, he passes the French baccalaureate and validates his previous medical studies
  • 1950-1959: Senior researcher at the Institut national d'hygiène (which became INSERM in 1963)
  • 1954: Doctorate in Medicine
  • Creates the journal La Psychiatrie de l'enfant with R. Diatkine, S. Lebovici and R. Crémieux
  • 1959-1975: Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Geneva, left vacant by the death of Prof. Ferdinand Morel. He was succeeded by René Tissot. He is also director of the Bel-Air University Psychiatric Clinic in Chêne-Bourg.
  • 1975-1981: Professor at the Collège de France, holding the Chair of Developmental Neuropsychology
  • 1978: Directs the psychiatric assistance plan set up in Spain by the Minister of Health
  • 1983-1984: Associate Professor at the University of the Basque Country
  • 1982-1986: Leads a "Équipe de recherches sur le développement neuropsychologique du nourrisson" consisting of Auzias, Casati, Candilis Kheroua, Robin, Séchan, based at the municipal crèche on rue Cabanis, at the entrance to Hôpital Sainte-Anne
  • 1983-1984: Lectures in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of the Basque Country

Academies

  • 1980-1986: Foreign Corresponding Member of the Real Academia Nacional de Medicina de Madrid

Awards and honors

  • 1938: Déjerine Prize for his work on experimental polyneuritis, under the supervision of Jean Lhermitte
  • 1974: City of Geneva Science Prize
  • 1978: Honorary doctorate from the University of the Basque Country/Euskadi
  • 1982: Honorary doctorate from the University of Barcelona

Chair