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Purpose. – Diogenes syndrome is characterised by self-neglect and domestic squalor which leads to unhealthy living conditions. It seems that no single model satisfactorily explains the development of Diogenes syndrome.Methods. – We report four cases of Diogenes syndrome discovered during a short-stay geriatric hospitalization. We were able to analyse them as regards social, physical, psychiatric and cognitive aspects.Results. – The results showed absence of socioeconomic precariousness, psychiatric and physical pathologies which generate handicaps. A dementia characterised by a frontal dysfunction was constantly found.Conclusion. – Diogenes syndrome seems to be a particular behavioural demonstration of a frontal lobe dementia. It does not correspond to a lucid life choice, which must encourage a medico-social assumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]