French medical writers

Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961), better known by the pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline ( say-LEEN, French: [lwi fɛʁdinɑ̃ selin] ), was a French novelist, polemicist, and physician. His first novel Journey to the End of the Night (1932) won the Prix Renaudot but divided critics due to the author's pessimistic depiction of the human condition and his writing style based on working-class speech. In subsequent novels such as Death on the Installment Plan (1936), Guignol's Band (1944) and Castle to Castle (1957) Céline further developed an innovative and distinctive literary style. Maurice Nadeau wrote: "What Joyce did for the English language...what the surrealists attempted to do for the French language, Céline achieved effortlessly and on a vast scale."From 1937 Céline wrote a series of antisemitic polemical works in which he advocated a military alliance with Nazi Germany. He continued to publicly espouse antisemitic views during the German occupation of France, and after the Allied landing in Normandy in 1944, he fled to Germany and then Denmark where he lived in exile. He was convicted of collaboration by a French court in 1951 but was pardoned by a military tribunal soon after. He returned to France where he resumed his careers as a doctor and author. Céline is widely considered to be one of the greatest French novelists of the 20th century but remains a controversial figure in France due to his antisemitism and activities during the Second World War.

Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette (French: [ʒɔʁʒ albɛʁ edwaʁ bʁytys ʒil də la tuʁɛt]; 30 October 1857 – 22 May 1904) was a French neurologist and the namesake of Tourette syndrome, a neurological condition characterized by tics. His main contributions in medicine were in the fields of hypnotism and hysteria.

Augustin Marie Morvan (7 February 1819 in Lannilis – 20 March 1897 in Douarnenez) was a French physician, politician, and writer. He is best known for treating the first recorded case of the eponymous Morvan's syndrome, a rare neurological disorder marked by acute insomnia. Morvan served as a deputy to the French National Assembly that inaugurated the Third Republic in 1871. In Brest, France, where he began his medical studies, the Rue Augustin Morvan and the Hôpital Augustin Morvan are named after him.

Amédée Dechambre (12 January 1812 in Sens – 4 January 1886 in Paris) was a French physician and medical writer.
He studied medicine in Paris, where he also worked as a hospital intern. In 1844 he received his medical doctorate from the University of Strasbourg with the dissertation-thesis "Sur l’hypertrophie concentrique du cœur et les déviations de l'épine par rétraction musculaire". From 1838 to 1853 he worked as an editor of the "Gazette médicale de Paris", and he was the founder of the medical-surgical newspaper "Gazette hebdomadaire de médecine et de chirurgie". In 1886, he died in Paris following a stroke.In 1865 he became an honorary member of the Société Médicale Allemande de Paris. In 1875, he was elected as a member of the Académie de Médecine.He is best known as being the managing editor of the Dictionnaire encyclopédique des sciences médicales, an encyclopedic medical dictionary that was published from 1864 to 1889 and spread out over 100 volumes. With Mathias-Marie Duval and Léon Lereboullet, he was co-editor of "Dictionnaire usuel des sciences médicales".

Théophile Alajouanine (French: [teofil alaʒuanin]; 12 June 1890 – 2 May 1980) was a French neurologist.
Théophile Alajouanine was born in Verneix, Allier. He was a student of Joseph Jules Dejerine and a colleague of Georges Guillain and Charles Foix. He was a prolific writer on many topics but was particularly interested in aphasia.A great scholar and enthusiastic bibliophile, Alajouanine had privileged relationships with famous writers during his neurological and neuropsychological career. Fyodor Dostoevsky's biography and works provided him with a penetrating look into the world of epilepsy. He was the composer Ravel's neurologist, and published an account of the composer's aphasia.
The Laboratoire Théophile-Alajouanine, Centre hospitalier Côte-des-Neiges, Montréal is named after him.

David Servan-Schreiber (April 21, 1961 – July 24, 2011) was a French physician, neuroscientist and author. He was a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He was also a lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine of Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1.

Eugène-Louis Doyen (16 December 1859 – 21 November 1916) was a French surgeon born in Reims. He was the son of Octave Doyen (1831–1895), who served as mayor of Reims.
Eugène Doyen studied medicine in Reims and Paris, and later opened a private medical institute in Paris that attracted a wealthy clientele. Doyen was a skilled and innovative physician who introduced several surgical techniques and medical instruments, some of which bear his name today. He was a pioneer in the use of electrosurgery and electrocoagulation, and also marketed a yeast extract he called "mycolysine" for treatment of infectious diseases.
He had a keen interest in photography and cinematography, and performed early experiments of color film, microcinematography and stereoscopic film. He produced numerous films of operations, including a craniectomy, an abdominal hysterectomy, and a surgery for separation of conjoined twins Radhika and Dudhika Nayak, united in the area of the xiphoid process of the sternum. Although his films were popular at medical conferences abroad, they were harshly criticized by his contemporaries in France, who felt that the integrity of their profession had been compromised.
For a period of time, Doyen was editor-in-chief of the Revue Critique de Médecine et de Chirurgie, as well as the Archives de Doyen, a medico-surgical journal of the Doyen Institute.

Françoise Dolto (French: [dɔlto]; November 6, 1908 – August 25, 1988) was a French pediatrician and psychoanalyst.