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.
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Laurent Tatu, MD, PhD
Department of Neuromuscular Diseases and Department of Anatomy
CHRU Besançon, University of Franche-Comté
FR–25000 Besançon (France)
E-Mail [email protected]
Bogousslavsky J, Tatu L (eds): Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists – Part 4. Front Neurol Neurosci. Basel, Karger, 2018, vol 43, pp 37–46 (DOI: 10.1159/000490403)
Creative Minds in the Aftermath of the Great War: Four Neurologically Wounded Artists
Claire Maingona, Laurent Tatub, c
aArt History, GRHis EA 3831, University of Normandy, Rouen, and Departments of bNeuromuscular Diseases and cAnatomy, CHU Jean-Minjoz, University of Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
Abstract
Many artists were involved in the First World War. Some of them were mobilized, like millions of soldiers, others enlisted to fight on the battlefield. The stories of writers who returned neurologically wounded from the war, such as Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918) or
