BRIERRE DE BOISMONT'S DEFINITION OF HALLUCINATIONS AND ILLUSIONS

   In 1845 the French alienist Alexandre Jacques François Brierre de Boismont (1797-1881) defined hallucinations and illusions as follows. "We define a hallucination as the perception of the sensible signs of the idea; and an illusion as the false appreciation of real sensations."

   References

   Brierre de Boismont, A. (1859). On hallucinations. A history and explanation of apparitions, visions, dreams, ecstasy, magnetism, and somnambulism. Translated by Hulme, R.T. London: Henry Renshaw.