In 1830, Frédéric Dubois d'Amiens won a selection process at the Royal Medical Society of Bordeaux with his thesis entitled "Philosophical history of hypochondriasis and hysteria." From an existential and systematic point of view and based on historical-philosophical methodology, the author presents an unpublished description of hypochondriasis by describing, step-by-step, the constitution of the individual suffering from this affection, thus revolutionizing medical and psychopathological conceptions of the disease. Despite severe criticism of his positions, in 1830 Dubois d'Amiens recognized hypochondriasis as a specific psychological and physical disturbance and described it as a way of thinking. Only much later did Freud classify it as an actual neurosis.
Hypochondriasis; systematic point of view; Dubois d'Amiens; hysteria