Convulsive Tic Disorder Georges Gilles de la Tourette, Guinon and Grasset on the Phenomenology and Psychopathology of Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome

Abstract

Gilles de la Tourette gained eponymous fame when he described nine cases of multiple tics, coprolalia and echolalia, and later he, Guinon and Grasset were the first to document the psychopathology of the Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. In particular, they noted the association between obsessional thoughts and behaviours and the tic disorder. In this paper we present the first English translations of their works referring to the psychopathology, comparing and contrasting their ideas to current concepts.

Tics, twitches, tales: The experiences of Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome.

“…The history of GTS is fascinating, beginning with early writings in the 1880s (Robertson & Reinstein, 1991). For the diagnosis of GTS to be made, multiple motor and one or more vocal or phonic tics must have been present for at least a year’s duration (American Psychiatric Association, 2002; World Health Organization, 1992).…”

J.-M. G. Itard’s 1825 study: movement and the science of the human mind

“…2 As Kushner (1999 has shown, Gilles de la Tourette first considered TS organic and then changed his mind under the influence of Guinon. Later, movement problems like tics became a sign of repressed feelings before they were again understood organically and the tics as involuntary (Kushner and Kiessling, 1996;Robertson and Reinstein, 1991). Today, TS is a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary movements and vocalizations; as a syndrome, it is diagnosed entirely by symptoms rather than through any testing.…”