Antoine-Athanase Royer-Collard

Antoine-Athanase Royer-Collard (February 7, 1768 – November 27, 1825) was a French physician who was born in the village of Sompuis, département Marne. He was a younger brother to philosopher Pierre-Paul Royer-Collard (1763–1845).

He studied medicine in Paris, and in 1806 became chief physician at the Charenton mental asylum. In 1816 he became a professor of forensic medicine at the Faculté de Médecine de Paris, and in 1819 was appointed to the first chair of médecine mentale.

In 1803 Royer-Collard founded the periodical, Bibliothèque médicale. After his death in 1825, his position at the Charenton was filled by Jean-Etienne-Dominique Esquirol (1772–1840).

One of his famous patients at the Charenton was Donatien Alphonse François de Sade (1740–1814), better known as Marquis de Sade, who spent the last eleven years of his life incarcerated at the asylum. Royer-Collard protested against the imprisonment of Marquis de Sade at the Charenton, believing him to be sane, and his only madness being vice. (This contrasts with the character Dr. Royer-Collard in the 2000 Philip Kaufman movie Quills, based on the Doug Wright play of the same name.)

References

• This article is based on a translation of an article from the French Wikipedia.
• Royer-Collard's Accessment of Marquis de Sade