Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault

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Biography

Gaétan Henri Alfred Edouard Léon Marie Gatian de Clérambault (July 2, 1872, Bourges – 1934) was a French psychiatrist. Clérambault gained his thesis in 1899. In 1905 he became assistant physician at the special infirmary for the insane, Prefecture de Police. From 1920 he was head of this institution. Apart from his psychiatric studies he wrote on the costumes of various native tribes. He committed suicide.


Jacques Lacan

In 1928, Lacan begins clinical training at Paris Police Special Infirmary for the Insane (L’Infirmerie Spéciale de la Préfecture de Police), under the supervision of Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault, whose unconventional style of teaching will exert a lasting influence on Lacan. Later he would say that "My only real master in psychiatry was Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault."