[Charcot and cerebral localizations. From aphasia to amnesia]

During the course of his convincing research into localizing cerebral motor areas, Charcot used the clinico-pathological method and his faith in localization for the study of aphasia. Thus, in 1883, he gave a course on the subject which is one of the most complex among the study of cerebral diseases. In this series of lessons, he was able to organize data from clinical studies, anatomy and psychology. In fact, for Charcot in 1883, aphasia was simple a particular kind of amnesia which could be taken as more or less severe partial loss of word memory. Memory itself would not exist, but would be divided into a number of autonomous partial memories. Charcot did not discover until some years later, basically from observing patients with hysteria, that memory is not only a stock of sensations but that it can also be used to save personal, autobiographical information. This led him to consider memory impairment not only as an organic disease but also as a psychological disease.