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Antoine Ritti

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Antoine Ritti (6 February 1844, Strasbourg - 23 January, 1920, Paris) was a French psychiatrist.

Ritti, whose uncle was Andreas Räss, the Bishop of Strasbourg, seemed originally destined to become a priest. However he chose to take up a medical career. He began his training as a psychiatrist at the asylum of Fains Meuse. He became influenced by the ideas of Auguste Comte becoming a positivist.[1] In 1869 this time he published his first work, La Pensée Nouvelle. Following the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war he left Alsace for Paris, working at the Lariboisière Hospital during the Paris Commune.[1] He obtained an in-house post at the Charenton Asylum. In 1878 he was appointed to a doctor's office in Charenton, a position he held until his retirement in 1909.[2]

Ritti studied under Jules Bernard Luys and applied Luys' anatomical-functional discoveries to develop a theory of the role of the thalamus in the pathophysiology of hallucinations.[1] For 38 years, from 1882 to 1920, Ritti was Secretary-General of the Medico-Psychological Society. During these years he wrote numerous eulogies and obituaries published in the Annales médico-psychologiques.

Ritti is buried in Père-Lachaise cemetery, in the tomb of the families Bouclier de la Fizelière. Here there is a bust of him by Marthe de la Fizelière.

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Walusinski, O.; Bogousslavsky, J. (November 2011). "Antoine Ritti (1844–1920), forgotten alienist and innovative theorist on the pathophysiology of hallucinations" (PDF). Revue Neurologique. 167 (11): 775–780. doi:10.1016/j.neurol.2011.01.020. PMID 21640365. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  2. ^ Caire, Michel. "Antoine Ritti". psychiatrie.histoire.free.fr. Michel Caire. Retrieved 16 March 2017.