Pierre Briquet

Paul Briquet or Pierre Briquet (12 January 1796 – 25 November 1881) was a French medical doctor and psychologist who advanced the reasoned treatment of disturbed people said to be hysterics.

Briquet became a medical doctor in 1824, a professor in 1827. In 1836 he operated at the Cochin hospital and in 1846 at La Charité hospital. In 1853 he described the preparation and use of quinine.

He published Traité clinique et thérapeutique de l’Hystérie in 1859, and the following year he was admitted to the Academie de Medecine.

A type of disorder called "Briquet’s syndrome" is classified as a subset of somatic symptom disorder. He first described this in 1859.

Although many of his theoretical concepts and scientific methods reflected the limitations of the period, his work emphasized empirical observation and clinical documentation. His Treatise on Hysteria contributed to early medical discussions of hysteria.

Briquet was a proponent of male hysteria in his Treatise. He cites Louyer-Villermay, M. Dubois, M. Landouzy, and M. Monneret as putting to rest the doubt over male hysteria. He wrote, "Regardless of the denials, men may suffer from hysteria, and the cases that prove it are not rare, and it is only possible to prevent it by acknowledging that." the introductory section on male hysteria is followed by prejudice against the male victims of the disorder. Briquet chooses to begin the main body of his book with a 40-page discussion of hysteria in the adult male – the very first discussion of its kind in a nineteenth-century medical text.