[The intimate Charcot]

Abstract

Charcot's first inner circle of relationships was at work at the Salpêtrière, face to face with his intern who Charcot then invited to his home. At the Clinic, Charcot gave his official lectures that attracted crowds, but the small circle of "his" students--interns, residents and other rare and privileges students saw some of the "best" moments, as long as they aquiesced totally and did not question the "maître". They all got together for dinner on Tuesday night at his sumptuous "hôtel" on Boulevard Saint-Germain, followed by a reception where they could meet writers, artists and politicians. When the outsiders had left, Charcot tightened together his inner circle, those he would invite to his summer home in Neuilly. Léon Daudet was one of these. He saw the art-lover, the enlightened connaisseur of classical literature. He saw Charcot let down his severe mask of a professor and become a pleasant joking man, yet his fascination with Charcot did not stop him from criticizing Charcot's materialism and anticlericalism. He also repudiated Charcot's autoritarism and depotism over his family (whom he adored) and recognized in Charcot a certain timidity and "proud malaise". These evenings, rare occasions in a life filled with work, went on long into the night in the solitary silence of his library. Only his long trips which he used as a "cure" broke the intimacy of his inner circle. His letters to his wife, who never accompanied him, offer a glimpse into the personality of this secret man. They let us perceive the effect of overwhelming scientific success and flattering applause, but also the shadow of susceptibility as seen by his daughter Jeanne who accompanied him on his last trips. He never gave up, never confided in others, yet he was a charmer, one whose silence was often a prelude to an explosion of rage.