Léon Chertok was a French psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

 known for his work on hypnosis and psychosomatic medicine.

Biography

Léon Chertok obtained his doctorate in medicine in Prague in 1938. He came to Paris in 1939, and joined the French resistance

French Resistance

The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...

. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre

Croix de guerre

The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...

. In 1947 he worked in a psychiatric ward at Mount Sinai hospital

Mount Sinai Hospital

Mount Sinai Hospital may refer to:*Mount Sinai Hospital, New York*Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto*Mount Sinai Medical Center & Miami Heart Institute, Miami, Florida*Mount Sinai Hospital, Cleveland*Mount Sinai Hospital, Milwaukee...

 in New York, in a psychosomatic unit directed by the psychoanalyst Lawrence Kubie. When back in France he underwent analysis with Jacques Lacan

Jacques Lacan

Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...

 from 1948 until 1954. From 1948 to 1949 he worked as an assistant for Marcel Montassut at the psychiatric hospital in Villejuif

Villejuif

Villejuif is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.-Name:The name Villejuif was recorded for the first time in a papal bull of 1119 as Villa Judea, the meaning of which is still debated...

. In 1950 he organized the center for psychosomatic medicine at Villejuif, with Victor Gachkel; also visited by Franz Alexander

Franz Alexander

Franz Gabriel Alexander was a Hungarian-American psychoanalyst and physician, who is considered one of the founders of psychosomatic medicine and psychoanalytic criminology.- Life :...

. During this period he did voluntary work under the urologist Pierre Aboulker. In the 1950s he went to the USA and let himself be hypnotized by Milton Erickson, and in Germany by Johannes Heinrich Schultz

Johannes Heinrich Schultz

Johannes Heinrich Schultz was a German psychiatrist and an independent psychotherapist. Schultz became world famous for the development of a system of self-hypnosis called autogenic training.- Life :...

. It was at this time that he met the psychoanalyst Raymond de Saussure and the specialist on animal magnetism

Animal magnetism

Animal magnetism , in modern usage, refers to a person's sexual attractiveness or raw charisma. As postulated by Franz Mesmer in the 18th century, the term referred to a supposed magnetic fluid or ethereal medium believed to reside in the bodies of animate beings...

 Robert Amadou. In 1957 he took part in the founding og the French society of psychosomatic medicine, with Michel Sapir and Pierre Aboulker. In 1959, he gave his first lecture on hypnosis for psychoanalysts under the auspices of Henri Ey

Henri Ey

Henri Ey was a French psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and philosopher.-Biography:Ey was born on 10 August 1900 in Banyuls-dels-Aspres, Pyrénées-Orientales, and died on 9 November 1977....

's society L'évolution psychiatrique. The end of the 1970's and the 1980's was marked by his exchanges with philosophers such as François Roustang, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen

Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen

Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen , is Professor of Comparative Literature and French at the University of Washington in Seattle. Born to Danish parents, he began his studies in France and emigrated to the United States in 1986. He is the author of many works on the history and philosophy of psychiatry,...

, Michel Henry

Michel Henry

Michel Henry was a French philosopher and novelist. He wrote five novels and numerous philosophical works. He also lectured at universities in France, Belgium, the United States of America, and Japan.- Biography :...

 and Isabelle Stengers

Isabelle Stengers

Professor Isabelle Stengers , is a Belgian philosopher and is the daughter of the historian Jean Stengers. She graduated in chemistry at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.-Biography:Professor Stengers writes about the philosophy of science...

.

Chertok found that the psychoanalysts neglected the practice and phenomenon of hypnosis, and thus made himself an object of fierce criticism from their side. He underwent, as mentioned, analysis with Jacques Lacan, and was a student of Francis Pasche, but he was not accepted as a member of the Societe Psychanalytique de Paris. Chertok also had some contact with Soviet psychiatrists. His position as a "heretic" led to his isolation and to the neglect of his ideas concerning hypnosis, thus favoring the Ericksonian school. In several books and papers written in collaboration with Isabelle Stengers Chertok repeatedly critizised traditional psychoanalysis and its institutions.

Works

• Psychosomatic methods in painless childbirth, 1959
• Hypnosis, 1966
• Psychophysical mechanisms of hypnosis, 1969
• Psychotherapeutic action of doctors, 1973
• The therapeutic revolution - from Mesmer to Freud, 1979, with Raymond de Saussure
• Sense and Nonsense in Psychotherapy: Challenge of Hypnosis, 1981