[From Kandinsky to Clerambault. Value of eponyms]

The Syndrome of Mental Automatism in delusional states has been described by the French psychiatrist G. de Clérambault in 1919. It consists mainly of involuntary production of impressions and ideas, ascribed by the patient to an external influence and still occurring within himself. Phenomena like thought echo, influence delusion, thought guess belong to M.A. Actually this syndrome is largely unknown in Anglo-Saxon countries. Somewhat similar description figures in DSM-III-R under the heading 295. A2-A3. Soviet psychiatrists claim that a quite similar clinical picture has been described by Kandinsky in his monograph posthumously published by his widow in 1890. The present writer shows that a great part of what Kandinsky described was actually based on self-observation. But it is true that Kandinsky described what he calls a "psychological chasm", where thought is either imposed upon the patient or stolen from him. The present writer considers that it is more a phenomenological approach than a semiological one and he is doubtful about the actual value of eponyms.