Mental automatism and exogenous psychosis: the originality of De Clérambault’s and Karl Bonhoeffer’s theories in substance-related psychoses

Abstract

The relationship between substance use and the onset of psychosis has been a subject of clinical and academic debate for centuries. The potential for cannabis to trigger psychosis was first suggested by Grose in 1772, who documented issues related to cannabis use in India (1). Karl Jaspers later explored this connection in his Allgemeine Psychopathologie (1959), describing toxic intoxications as "model psychoses" that mimic acute episodes, noting their intermediate processes remain unclear (2). Before Jaspers, Jacques-Joseph Moreau de Tours, in the 19th century, argued for a continuum between normal and pathological mental states based on his observations of hashish users.