Editing Louis Althusser (section)

=== Killing of Rytmann and late years: 1978–1990 ===
After the PCF and the left were defeated in the [[1978 French legislative election|French legislative elections of 1978]], Althusser's bouts of depression became more severe and frequent.{{sfn|Lewis|2014}} In March 1980, Althusser interrupted the dissolution session of the [[École Freudienne de Paris]], and, "in the name of the analysts", called Lacan a "beautiful and pitiful harlequin."{{sfn|Balibar|2005b|p=273}} Later, he went through a [[hiatal hernia]]-removal surgery as he had difficulties breathing while eating.{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=113}} According to Althusser himself, the operation caused his physical and mental state to deteriorate; in particular, he developed a persecution complex and suicidal thoughts. He would recall later:
{{blockquote|I wanted not only to destroy myself physically but to wipe out all trace of my time on earth: in particular, to destroy every last one of my books and all my notes, and burn the École Normale, and also, "if possible," suppress Hélène herself while I still could.{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=113}}}}

After the surgery, in May, he was hospitalized for most of the summer in a Parisian clinic. His condition did not improve, but in early October he was sent home.{{sfn|Balibar|2005b|p=273}} Upon returning, he wanted to get away from ENS and even proposed to buy Roudinesco's house.{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=113}} He and Rytmann were also convinced about the "human decline", and so he tried to talk to the [[Pope John Paul II]] through his former professor Jean Guitton.{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=114}} Most of the time, however, he and his wife spent locked in their ENS apartment.{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=114}} In the fall of 1980, Althusser's psychiatrist [[René Diatkine]], who by now was also treating Althusser's wife Hélène Rytmann,{{sfnm|1a1=Kirshner|1y=2003|1p=219|2a1=Roudinesco|2y=2008|2p=121}} recommended that Althusser be hospitalized, but the couple refused.{{sfn|Kirshner|2003|p=235}}

{{rquote|right|Before me: Hélène lying on her back, also wearing a dressing gown.&nbsp;... Kneeling beside her, leaning over her body, I am engaged in massaging her neck.&nbsp;... I press my two thumbs into the hollow of flesh that borders the top of the sternum, and, applying force, I slowly reach, one thumb toward the right, one thumb toward the left at an angle, the firmer area below the ears.&nbsp;... Hélène's face is immobile and serene, her open eyes are fixed on the ceiling. And suddenly I am struck with terror: her eyes are interminably fixed, and above all here is the tip of her tongue lying, unusually and peacefully, between her teeth and her lips. I had certainly seen corpses before, but I had never seen the face of a strangled woman in my life. And yet I know that this is a strangled woman. What is happening? I stand up and scream: I've strangled Hélène!|Althusser, ''L'avenir dure longtemps''{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=1992}} }}

On 16 November 1980, Althusser strangled Rytmann in their ENS room. He himself reported the murder to the doctor in residence who contacted psychiatric institutions.{{sfn|European Graduate School}} Even before the police arrival, the doctor and the director of ENS decided to hospitalize him in the Sainte-Anne hospital and a psychiatric examination was conducted on him.{{sfnm|1a1=Poisson|1y=1998|1p=107|2a1=Balibar|2y=2005b|2p=273}} Due to his mental state, Althusser was deemed to not understand the charges or the process to which he was to be submitted, so he remained at the hospital.{{sfn|Lewis|2014}} The psychiatric assessment concluded he should not be criminally charged, based on article 64 of the [[French Penal Code of 1810|French Penal Code]], which stated that "there is neither crime nor delict where the suspect was in a state of dementia at the time of the action".{{sfn|Lewis|2014}} The report said Althusser killed Rytmann in the course of an acute crisis of melancholy, without even realizing it, and that the "wife-murder by manual strangulation was committed without any additional violence, in the course of [an] iatrogenic hallucinatory episode complicated by melancholic depression."{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=103}} As a result, he lost his civil rights, entrusted to a representative of the law, and he was forbidden to sign any documents.{{sfn|Poisson|1998|p=107}} In February 1981, the court ruled Althusser as having been mentally irresponsible when he committed the murder, therefore he could not be prosecuted and was not charged.{{sfnm|1a1=Poisson|1y=1998|1p=107|2a1=European Graduate School}} Nonetheless, a warrant of confinement was subsequently issued by the [[Paris police prefecture]];{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=108}} the [[Ministry of National Education (France)|Ministry of National Education]] mandated his retirement from the ENS;{{sfn|Balibar|2005b|p=274}} and the ENS requested his family and friends to clear out his apartment.{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=108}} In June, he was transferred to the L'Eau-Vive clinic at [[Soisy-sur-Seine]].{{sfnm|1a1=Balibar|1y=2005b|1pp=273–274|2a1=Roudinesco|2y=2008|2p=108}}

The murder of Rytmann attracted much media attention, and there were several requests to treat Althusser as an ordinary criminal.{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|pp=101–102}} The newspaper ''[[Minute (French newspaper)|Minute]]'', journalist [[Dominique Jamet]] and Minister of Justice [[Alain Peyrefitte]] were among those who accused Althusser of having "privileges" because of the fact he was Communist. From this point of view, Roudinesco wrote, Althusser was three times a criminal. First, the philosopher had legitimated the current of thought judged responsible for the [[Gulag]]; second, he praised the Chinese Cultural Revolution as an alternative to both capitalism and Stalinism; and finally because he had, it was said, corrupted the elite of French youth by introducing the cult of a criminal ideology into the heart of one of the best French institutions.{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=103}} Philosopher [[Pierre-André Taguieff]] went further on claiming Althusser taught his students to perceive crimes positively, as akin to a revolution.{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=169}} Five years after the murder, a critique by ''Le Monde''{{'s}} [[Claude Sarraute]] would have a great impact on Althusser.{{sfn|European Graduate School}} She compared his case to the situation of [[Issei Sagawa]], who killed and cannibalized a woman in France, but whose psychiatric diagnosis absolved him. Sarraute criticized the fact that, when prestigious names are involved, a lot is written about them but that little is written about the victim.{{sfnm|1a1=Roudinesco|1y=2008|p=98|2a1=European Graduate School}} Althusser's friends persuaded him to speak in his defense, and the philosopher wrote an autobiography in 1985.{{sfn|European Graduate School}} He showed the result, ''L'avenir dure longtemps'',{{efn|Taken from a phrase by [[Charles de Gaulle]], its literal translation is "the future lasts a long time".{{sfn|Poisson|1998|p=108}} Several biographers and sources refer to it as ''The Future Lasts A Long Time''.{{sfnm|1a1=Elliott|1y=2006|2a1=Roudinesco|2y=2008|3a1=European Graduate School}} This was the title of the British version published by [[Chatto & Windus]].{{sfn|Elliott|2006|p=318}} The US version by [[The New York Press]], however, adopts the title ''The Future Lasts Forever''.{{sfnm|1a1=Poisson|1y=1998|1p=124|2a1=Elliott|2y=2006|2p=318}} }} to some of his friends and considered publishing it, but he never sent it to a publisher and locked it in his desk drawer.{{sfnm|1a1=Balibar|1y=2005b|1p=274|2a1=Roudinesco|2y=2008|2p=110}} The book was only published posthumously in 1992.{{sfnm|1a1=Roudinesco|1y=2008|1p=100|2a1=European Graduate School}}

Despite the critics, some of his friends, such as Guitton and Debray, defended Althusser, saying the murder was an act of love—as Althusser argued too.{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|pp=109–110}}{{Failed verification|date=March 2023}} Rytmann had bouts of melancholy and self-medicated because of this.{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=114, 171}} Guitton said, "I sincerely think that he killed his wife out of love of her. It was a crime of mystical love".{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=110}} Debray compared it to an [[altruistic suicide]]: "He suffocated her under a pillow to save her from the anguish that was suffocating him. A beautiful proof of love ... that one can save one's skin while sacrificing oneself for the other, only to take upon oneself all the pain of living".{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=110}} In his autobiography, written to be the public explanation he could not provide in court,{{sfnm|1a1=Elliott|1y=2006|1p=325|2a1=Lewis|2y=2014}} Althusser stated that "she matter-of-factly asked me to kill her myself, and this word, unthinkable and intolerable in its horror, caused my whole body to tremble for a long time. It still makes me tremble{{nbsp}}... We were living shut up in the cloister of our hell, both of us."{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=114}}

{{rquote|left|I killed a woman who was everything to me during a crisis of mental confusion, she who loved me to the point of wanting only to die because she could not continue living. And no doubt in my confusion and unconsciousness I 'did her this service,' which she did not try to prevent, but from which she died.|Althusser, ''L'avenir dure longtemps''{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=109}}}}

That, of course, is what he said, but Rytmann's point of view is unknowable.{{Editorializing|date=October 2024}}<!-- According to the [https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Althusser] French wikipedia page about Althusser --> Quebecois author Suzanne Léveillée has written that Rytmann wanted to leave him. Another Quebecois author, Francis Dupuis-Déri, also confirms that idea in an article about how the media dealt handled the murder,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dupuis-Déri |first1=Francis |title=An ordinary man: Louis Althusser killed his wife, Hélène Rytmann-Legotien, who wanted to leave him |journal=Nouvelles Questions Féministes |date=17 June 2015 |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=84–101 |doi=10.3917/nqf.341.0084 |url=https://shs.cairn.info/journal-nouvelles-questions-feministes-2015-1-page-84?lang=en |issn=0248-4951}}</ref> and later in a book titled ''Althusser Assassin''.<ref>{{cite web |title="Althusser assassin" : redonner vie à Hélène Rytmann {{!}} Philosophie magazine |url=https://www.philomag.com/articles/althusser-assassin-redonner-vie-helene-rytmann |website=Philosophie magazine |publisher=Philo Éditions |access-date=14 October 2024 |language=fr |date=15 November 2023}}</ref>

The crime seriously tarnished Althusser's reputation.{{sfn|Schrift|2006|pp=87–88}} As Roudinesco wrote, from 1980, he lived his life as a "specter, a dead man walking".{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=108}} Althusser was forced to live in various public and private clinics until 1983, when he became a voluntary patient.{{sfn|Stolze|2013|p=8}} He was able to start an untitled manuscript during this time, in 1982; it was later published as "The Underground Current of the Materialism of the Encounter" ("Le courant souterrain du matérialisme de la rencontre").{{sfn|Elliott|2006|p=401}} From 1984 to 1986, he stayed at an apartment in the north of Paris,{{sfn|Stolze|2013|p=8}} where he remained confined most of his time, but he also received visits from some friends, such as philosopher and theologian [[Stanislas Breton]], who had also been a prisoner in the German [[stalag]]s;{{sfn|Balibar|2005b|p=274}} from Guitton, who converted him into a "mystic monk" in Roudinesco's words;{{sfn|Roudinesco|2008|p=110}} and from Mexican philosopher Fernanda Navarro during six months, starting from the winter of 1984.{{sfn|Althusser|1988|p=11–13}} Althusser and Navarro exchanged letters until February 1987, and he also wrote a preface in July 1986 for the resulting book, ''Filosofía y marxismo'',{{sfn|Althusser|1988|p=11–13}} a collection of her interviews with Althusser that was released in Mexico in 1988.{{sfn|Balibar|2005b|p=274}} These interviews and correspondence were collected and published in France in 1994 as ''Sur la philosophie''.{{sfn|Elliott|2006|p=318}} In this period he formulated his "materialism of the encounter" or "aleatory materialism", talking to Breton and Navarro about it,{{sfnm|1a1=Balibar|1y=2005b|1p=274|2a1=Elliott|2y=2006|2p=318}} that first appeared in ''Écrits philosophiques et politiques I'' (1994) and later in the 2006 [[Verso Books|Verso]] book ''Philosophy of the Encounter''.{{sfnm|1a1=Elliott|1y=2006|1p=318|2a1=Lewis|2y=2014}} In 1987, after Althusser underwent an emergency operation because of the obstruction of the [[esophagus]], he developed a new clinical case of depression. First brought to the Soisy-sur-Seine clinic, he was transferred to the psychiatric institution MGEN in [[La Verrière]]. There, following a pneumonia contracted during the summer, he died of a [[heart attack]] on 22 October 1990.{{sfn|Balibar|2005b|p=274}}