RIBOT, THODULE-ARMAND

born Dec. 18, 1839, Guingamp, Fr. died Dec. 9, 1916, Paris French psychologist whose endeavour to account for memory loss as a symptom of progressive brain disease, iterated in his Les Maladies de la mmoire (1881; Diseases of Memory), constitutes the most influential early attempt to analyze abnormalities of memory in terms of physiology. Ribot received his doctorate from the cole Normale Suprieure. He taught at the Sorbonne from 1885 to 1888, and from 1889 to 1896 he held a chair of experimental and comparative psychology at the Collge de France. After studying the works of English and German psychologists, Ribot began his analysis of abnormal psychology. His published works on the subject, in addition to Diseases of Memory, included studies of diseases of will, personality, and attention. In later years Ribot became interested in affective and emotional factors in psychology.