Paul Sollier

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Paul Auguste Sollier (31 August 1861 – 8 June 1933) was a French medical doctor and psychologist. He was born in Bléré, France, and was considered one of the most gifted students of the famous neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, along with Joseph Babinski. Sollier was unusual for a neurologist because he studied psychology and he disagreed with psychiatrist Pierre Janet, which kept him from widespread acceptance. He never pursued an academic career or was elected to the Académie de Médecine, despite several attempts.

Sollier’s work covered classic neurological problems as well as memory, emotions, hysteria, and how people think. He is seen as an early figure in neuropsychology and helped lay the groundwork for studying intelligence. In the 1890s he developed cognitive behavioral therapies and used them with his most famous patient, Marcel Proust. Proust drew on Sollier’s ideas about involuntary memory in his monumental novel In Search of Lost Time.

Sollier married Alice Mathieu-Dubois, the first Black French woman to become a medical doctor, in 1886. They had two children: René Victor (born 3 November 1886, died three days later) and Suzanne (born 8 November 1887). Sollier died on 8 June 1933 at the age of 71.