Background
Laborit was born in Hanoi, French Indochina and started his career as a neurosurgeon in the Marines and then moved on to fundamental research.
chemist neurologist philosopher screenwriter
Laborit was born in Hanoi, French Indochina and started his career as a neurosurgeon in the Marines and then moved on to fundamental research.
Laborit later became a research head at Boucicault Hospital in Paris. His interests included psychotropic drugs, eutonology, and memory. He pioneered the use of dopamine antagonists to reduce shock in injured soldiers.
His observation that people treated with these drugs showed reduced interest in their surroundings led to their later use as antipsychotics.
He was also the first researcher to study GHB, in the early 1960s. He appeared in the 1980 Alain Resnais film Mon oncle d"Amérique, which is built around the ideas of Laborit and uses the stories of three people to illustrate theories deriving from evolutionary psychology regarding the relationship of self and society.