Editing Louis Althusser (section)

===Early life: 1918–1948===
Althusser was born in [[French Algeria]] in the town of [[Birmendreïs]], near [[Algiers]], to a ''[[pied-noir]]'' [[petit-bourgeois]] family from [[Alsace]], France.<!--{{sfnm|1a1=Stolze|1y=2013|1p=7|2a1=Lewis|2y=2014}} --> His father, Charles-Joseph Althusser, was a lieutenant in the French army and a bank clerk, while his mother, Lucienne Marthe Berger, a devout [[Catholic Church|Catholic]], worked as a schoolteacher.{{sfnm|1a1=Stolze|1y=2013|1p=7|2a1=Lewis|2y=2014}} According to his own memoirs, his Algerian childhood was prosperous; historian [[Martin Jay]] said that Althusser, along with [[Albert Camus]] and [[Jacques Derrida]], was "a product of the French colonial culture in Northern Africa."{{sfn|Jay|1984|p=391, note 18}} In 1930, his family moved to the French city of [[Marseille]] as his father was to be the director of the [[Compagnie Algérienne]] bank branch in the city.{{sfnm|1a1=Balibar|1y=2005b|1p=266|2a1=Stolze|2y=2013|2p=7}} Althusser spent the rest of his childhood there, excelling in his studies at the {{interlanguage link|Lycée Saint-Charles|fr|Lycée Saint-Charles (Marseille)}} and joining a [[scout group]].{{sfnm|1a1=Stolze|1y=2013|1p=7|2a1=Lewis|2y=2014}} A second displacement occurred in 1936 when Althusser settled in [[Lyon]] as a student at the [[Lycée du Parc]]. Later he was accepted by the highly regarded higher-education establishment (''[[Grandes écoles|grande école]]'') [[École Normale Supérieure]] (ENS) in Paris.{{sfn|Stolze|2013|p=7}} At the Lycée du Parc, Althusser was influenced by Catholic professors,{{efn|Among them, the philosophers [[Jean Guitton]] (1901–1999) and {{interlanguage link|Jean Lacroix (philosopher){{!}}Jean Lacroix|fr|Jean Lacroix}} (1900–1986) and the historian {{interlanguage link|Joseph Hours|fr|Joseph Hours}} (1896–1963).{{sfn|Lewis|2014|}}}} joined the Catholic youth movement [[Jeunesse Étudiante Chrétienne]],{{sfn|Lewis|2014|}} and wanted to be a [[Trappist]].{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=110}} His interest in Catholicism coexisted with his [[communist]] ideology,{{sfn|Lewis|2014|}} and some critics argued that his early Catholic introduction affected the way he interpreted [[Karl Marx]].{{sfn|Jay|1984|p=391}}

[[Image:LyceeDuParcLyon.jpg|thumb|left|The Lycée du Parc, where Althusser studied for two years and was influenced by Catholic professors]]

After a two-year period of preparation (''[[Khâgne]]'') under [[Jean Guitton]] at the Lycée du Parc, Althusser was admitted into the ENS in July 1939.{{sfnm|1a1=Balibar|1y=2005b|1p=266|2a1=Roudinesco|2y=2008|2p=106}} But his attendance was deferred by many years because he was drafted into the French Army in September of that year in the run-up to [[World War II]] and, like most French soldiers following the [[Fall of France]], was captured by the Germans.<!--{{sfnm|1a1=Balibar|1y=2005b|1p=266|2a1=Stolze|2y=2013|2p=7|3a1=Lewis|3y=2014}} --> Seized in [[Vannes]] in June 1940, he was held in a [[prisoner-of-war camp]] in [[Schleswig-Holstein]], in Northern Germany, for the five remaining years of the war.{{sfnm|1a1=Balibar|1y=2005b|1p=266|2a1=Stolze|2y=2013|2p=7|3a1=Lewis|3y=2014}} In the camp, he was at first drafted to hard labour but ultimately reassigned to work in the infirmary after falling ill. This second occupation allowed him to read philosophy and literature.{{sfn|Ferretter|2006|pp=2–3}} In his memoirs, Althusser described the experiences of solidarity, political action, and community in the camp as the moment he first understood the idea of communism.{{sfn|Lewis|2014|}} Althusser recalled: "It was in prison camp that I first heard [[Marxism]] discussed by a Parisian lawyer in transit—and that I actually met a communist".{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=106}} His experience in the camp also affected his lifelong bouts of mental instability, reflected in constant [[Major depressive disorder|depression]] that lasted until the end of life.{{sfnm|1a1=Stolze|1y=2013|1p=7|2a1=Lewis|2y=2014}} Psychoanalyst [[Élisabeth Roudinesco]] has argued that the absurd war experience was essential for Althusser's philosophical thought.{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=106}}

Althusser resumed his studies at the ENS in 1945 to prepare himself for the ''[[agrégation]]'', an exam to teach philosophy in secondary schools.{{sfn|Lewis|2014|}} In 1946, Althusser met sociologist [[Hélène Rytmann]],{{efn|She was also known as Hélène Legotien and Hélène Legotien-Rytmann because "Legotien" had been her cover name in the Resistance and she continued to use it.{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=168}} There is some divergence on how to spell her last name; some sources spell it as "Rytman",{{sfnm|1a1=Balibar|1y=2005b|2a1=Elliott|2y=2006|3a1=Lewis|3y=2014}} while others use "Rytmann".{{sfnm|1a1=Roudinesco|1y=2008|2a1=European Graduate School}} In Althusser's compilation of his letters to his wife, ''Lettres à Hélène'', he always addressed her as "Rytmann", although the book's own preface by [[Bernard-Henri Lévy]] calls her "Rytman".{{sfn|Althusser|2011}}}} a [[Jewish]] former [[French Resistance]] member with whom he was in a relationship until he killed her by strangulation in 1980.{{sfnm|1a1=Balibar|1y=2005b|1p=271|2a1=Roudinesco|2y=2008|2p=116}} That same year, he started a close friendly relationship with Jacques Martin, a translator of [[G. W. F. Hegel]] and [[Hermann Hesse]]. Martin, to whom Althusser dedicated his first book, would later commit suicide.{{sfn|Stolze|2013|p=7}} Martin was influential on Althusser's interest on reading the bibliography of [[Jean Cavaillès]], [[Georges Canguilhem]] and Hegel.{{sfnm|1a1=Roudinesco|1y=2008|1p=105|2a1=Stolze|2y=2013|2p=7}} Although Althusser remained a Catholic, he became more associated with left-wing groups, joining the "[[worker-priest]]s" movement{{sfn|Balibar|2005b|p=267}} and embracing a synthesis of Christian and Marxist thought.{{sfn|Lewis|2014|}} This combination may have led him to adopt [[German Idealism]] and Hegelian thought,{{sfn|Lewis|2014|}} as did Martin's influence and a renewed interest in Hegel in the 1930s and 1940s in France.{{sfn|Biard|1995|p=139}} In consonance, Althusser's master thesis to obtain his ''diplôme d'études supèrieures'' was "On Content in the Thought of G. W. F. Hegel" ("Du contenu dans la pensée de G. W. F. Hegel", 1947).{{sfnm|1a1=Ferretter|1y=2006|1p=3|2a1=Lewis|2y=2014}} Based on ''[[The Phenomenology of Spirit]]'', and under [[Gaston Bachelard]]'s supervision, Althusser wrote a dissertation on how Marx's philosophy refused to withdraw from the Hegelian [[master–slave dialectic]].{{sfn|Biard|1995|p=140}} According to the researcher Gregory Elliott, Althusser was a Hegelian at that time but only for a short period.{{sfn|Elliott|2006|p=335}}