Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists - Part 4. Группа авторов

Fig. 6. L’Union pharmaceutique, 1923.

      Lucette Destouches, Céline’s wife, also gave her point of view on the origin of his ear troubles: “Louis often told me of his 1914 wound. A shell had thrown him to the ground. Once back on his horse, his arm was hit. There was no patent wound on his face. Only his left ear was bleeding. No one took care of it. He was severely shocked by the wound and the blow. Afterwards, Louis thought he had suffered from a petrous bone fracture” [Vitoux, 1988, pp. 87–88]. In 1946, during his incarceration in Denmark, he wrote about his first potential wound during the First World War: “Complete deafness in the left ear with intensive and permanent buzzing and whistling sounds. This has been my state since 1914 and my first wound when a shell explosion threw me against a tree… These troubles have become particularly intense for two years and especially during my incarceration” [Gibault, 1985, pp. 157–164].

      Céline: A Shell-Shocked Soldier?

      There is no medical evidence that Céline suffered from shell shock, contrary to certain hypotheses developed in recent years [Quinn, 2002]. None of the cardinal signs of war commotion, war emotion or hystero-pithiatism, the three main clinical expressions of war psychoneuroses, are present in Céline’s war experience.

      In the writings of Destouches or his father, some observations underline that Céline, like all combatants, was marked by the hardships of the conflict without the clear clinical signs of war commotion or war emotion defining the shell shock.

      At the beginning of the war, Destouches, besides the fear surrounding the first attacks, witnessed some violent war scenes, such as summary executions: “This morning, when we woke up, summary execution of three spies. Each of us then emptied his gun on this scum who caused the loss of an entire squadron of the 20th chasseurs. Only two fighters remain” [letter of September 15th, 1914; Céline, 2009, p. 106].

      In the last letter sent to his parents before his wound, Destouches reported a scene of civilian massacre by German troops: “…a little show of the kind that we saw yesterday in La Fosse, where a family of 14 persons, all defenceless civilians, had been killed with spears. The oldest grandmother was 78 years old and the youngest child was 15 days… plus the pregnant mother whose belly had been torn open by a soldier” [letter of October 1914; Céline, 2009, p. 118].

      On November 5th, 1914, Destouches’ father, who visited him in Hazebrouck military hospital, wrote: “…the presence of acute, constant danger that he is only now aware to have escaped, has triggered in him as in all others a nervous over-excitement that an almost complete deprivation of sleep has only made worse. He only sleeps an hour now, an hour then, and wakes up with a sweat-drenched start. Visions of every horror he has witnessed constantly visit him” [letter from Ferdinand Destouches of November 5th, 1914; Céline, 2009, p. 121]. These transient reactions were frequent in soldiers faced with the horrors of the battlefield and should not be misinterpreted as a delirium or formal signs of a war psychoneurosis. The only occurrence of slight psychic troubles appeared in a letter of Céline to his parents on August 20th, 1916: “I suffer now from only two disabilities that I know of: the radial paralysis for which I received a military medal, and a slight phobia for which I have earned nothing so far” [letter of August 20th, 1916; Céline, 2009, p. 176].

      The description of shell shock electrotherapy in Voyage au bout de la nuit (Journey to the End of the Night) is frequently considered as evidence that Céline received electric shocks to treat a war neurosis. However, the text remains a novel, which draws inspiration upon but alters the characters and places from Celine’s real life. The electrical treatment Céline underwent in February and March 1915 was not intended as a treatment for shell shock. The aim was to stimulate the recovery of his right radial nerve paralysis, a frequent use of electrotherapy at that time.

      Obviously, Céline used his personal experience with electrotherapy to write Voyage au bout de la nuit (Journey to the End of the Night). In the novel, the shell-shocked hero Bardamu received electric therapy from Prof. Bestombes: “That, Bardamu, is how I mean to treat my patients, electricity for the body, and for the mind massive doses of patriotic ethics, injections as it were of invigorating morality!” [Céline, 1981a, p. 94]. After the Second World War, on several occasions, Céline revealed that the model for Prof. Bestombes was the famous neurologist Prof. Gustave Roussy, one of the defenders of faradic psychotherapy in France, whom he met during his stay at Paul-Brousse Hospital in 1915 [Céline, 1981b, pp. 1189–1190].

      Céline was aware of shell shock and electrotherapy. In September 1916, he wrote to his friend Albert Milon: “I read in French newspapers about a thousand surprising things. The life of the wounded becomes more and more impossible, it seems. And that’s without even taking into account that awful affair of soldier Deschamps, which reeks of the flesh trade. The mere name of electric torpillage makes me think of the bloodiest, most scatological scenes of grand guignol” [letter of September 24th, 1916; Céline, 2009, p. 191]. In the same letter, he confirmed that he was never treated by torpillage: “We may have been treated with somewhat experimental methods…but never in a thousand years would they have thought of applying the electric torpille to Dupuy, or Lardillier, or you, or myself. It would have been against the rules” [letter of September 24th, 1916; Céline, 2009, p. 191].

      Acknowledgments

      All quotations have been taken from official published translations when they exist. In the absence of an official English version, translations have been made by Lucie Bernard, whom we gratefully acknowledge for her help.

      References

      Archives de Paris. Registre matricule de Louis Ferdinand Destouches. Paris, 1914.

      Archives du Service de santé des armées (ASSA) – A61. Val-de-Grâce, Paris, 1915.

      Brochard M: Céline à Rennes; in: Louis Ferdinand Céline. Paris, L’Herne, 2007 pp 167–170.

      Bromberger M: Le docteur X alias Céline. L’intransigeant, Dec 8, 1932.

      Céline LF: Sur une petite thérapeutique des acouphènes par le son et la transmission osseuse. Union Pharmaceutique 1923;64:53–54.

      Céline LF: Féérie pour une autre fois. Paris, Gallimard, 1952.

      Céline LF: Nord. Paris, Gallimard, 1960.

      Céline LF: Rigodon. Paris, Gallimard, 1969.

      Céline LF: Féérie pour une autre fois (version primitive). “La Pléiade” Romans IV. Paris, Gallimard, 1974.

      Céline LF: Voyage au bout de la nuit. “La Pléiade” Romans I. Paris, Gallimard, 1981a.

      Céline LF: Voyage au bout de la nuit: Notice. “La Pléiade” Romans I. Paris, Gallimard, 1981b.

      Céline LF: Choix de lettres de Céline et de quelques correspondants (1907–1961). “La Pléiade”. Paris, Gallimard, 2009.

      Dauphin JP, Boudillet J: Album Céline. “La Pléiade”. Paris, Gallimard, 1977.

      Ducourneau JA: La fin d’une légende; in Oeuvres de Louis Ferdinand Céline, volume 1. Paris, André Balland, 1966, pp 35–39.

      Gibault F: Céline 1894–1932. Le temps des espérances. Paris, Mercure de France, 1985.

      Godard H: Céline. Paris, Gallimard, 2011.

      Hindus M: Céline tel que je l’ai vu. Paris, L’Herne, 1969.

      Institut Mémoire de l’Édition Contemporaine (IMEC): Fonds: Céline, Louis-Ferdinand. Saint-Germainla-Blanche-Herbe, 2009.

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