Claude Piron

Claude Piron (Namur, 1931 - Gland, 2008) was a Swiss psychologist who devoted much of his life to Esperanto, the international language in which he wrote prolifically. He is interesting because he combined training in psychology and linguistics with a reasoned defence of a planned language, which places him among those who thought carefully about communication between peoples.

He worked as a translator for the United Nations and later for the World Health Organization, with postings in Africa and Asia. From 1968 he practised psychotherapy in his office in Gland, where he mostly supervised young psychologists. From 1973 to 1994 he taught in the psychology department at the University of Geneva.

His Esperanto output is broad, covering novels, short stories, poems and essays. His best-known work in the language, Gerda malaperis!, is a detective novella that begins with basic grammar and vocabulary and grows more complex chapter by chapter, so it is often used as a first reader after an introductory course. In La Bona Lingvo he criticises the unnecessary borrowing of neologisms from European languages and argues that Esperanto is easy because its method of combining morphemes follows the way we think. In his view this lets learners rely on the generalising assimilation described by Jean Piaget, something natural languages rarely allow to the same degree.

In French he wrote about psychological topics and about language communication, including Le défi des langues - Du gâchis au bon sens, which treats international communication as a matter of common sense rather than prestige. Some of his literary work appeared under the pseudonym Johan Valano.

His influence is felt mainly within the Esperanto movement, where he was a member of the Academy of Esperanto and of the Esperanto Writers' Association.