320 Derrida 1963–1983
repeating the same sentence: ‘I’ve killed Hélène, what comes
next?’ Dr Étienne called the Sainte-Anne hospital to have him
interned. The ambulance arrived some ten minutes before the
police, alerted by Jean Bousquet, the director of the ENS. Louis
Althusser fell into such a state of prostration that Guy Joly, the
examining magistrate who went that evening to Sainte-Anne,
decided not to tell him that he had been charged with murder.
The philosopher seemed unable to understand the meaning of
this judicial act.^35However dreadful it may have been, this turn of events did not
come entirely as a surprise to Althusser’s friends. ‘Since I’d known
him, I’d never seen him in such a state,’ remembers Dominique
Lecourt.
They’d been trying out a new medicine that obviously didn’t
suit him. Sometimes it was impossible even to visit him, he was
so off his head. However, Diatkine had allowed him out of the
clinic, saying that this was the ‘resolution crisis’. He had always
been under the spell of Hélène and Louis, both of whom he was
treating. But Althusser continued to be in a bad way. Some of
us were afraid he might commit suicide. Hélène often phoned
me to bring me up to date. Derrida and I regularly discussed
Althusser’s state, with anxiety as much as with sadness.^36As soon as they had placed the most famous Marxist philosopher
in the world in an isolation ward, the doctors started to seek out
his family. ‘In reality, Althusser didn’t have any,’ explains Étienne
Balibar, ‘as his nephew was at that time very young. So they turned
to the École, which had long since replaced his family, so to speak.
They immediately informed Derrida, whose behaviour throughout
the whole period was admirable.’^37 On that grim Sunday morning,
he was among the fi rst to arrive, at the same time as Régis Debray,
with whom he had re-established communications the year before
during the preparations for the Estates General of philosophy.
Together they went to the Sainte-Anne hospital and waited for
hours, without being allowed to see Althusser.^38
The next day, the headlines were full of this major event.
Le Quotidien de Paris would lead a veritable campaign against
Althusser and the École Normale Supérieure. However, on the fi rst
day, information was quite confused and discussion confi ned to a
‘Mystery at Normale Sup’:
The question arises of whether or not he [Althusser] is directly
responsible for the death of his wife. But yesterday, a veil was
immediately drawn over the night’s events. The director of the