Louis Althusser

Louis Pierre Althusser (October 16, 1918 - October 23, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. He was a leading academic proponent of the French Communist Party and his arguments were a response to multiple threats to the ideological foundations of that socialist project. These included both the threat from an empiricism which was beginning to invade Marxist sociology and economics, and a threat from humanistic and democratic socialist orientations which were beginning to corrode the purity of the European Communist Parties. Althusser is commonly referred to as a structuralist Marxist, although his relationship to other schools of French structuralism is not a simple affiliation.

Biographical information

Early Life

Althusser wrote two autobiographies, L'Avenir dure longtemps, or "The Future Lasts a Long Time," which is published in America as "The Future Lasts Forever," which is published in a single volume with Althusser's other, shorter, earlier autobiography, "The Facts." These documents provide most of the information we know about his life, although, as with all autobiographies, the information they provide is somewhat suspect.

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Althusser was born in French Algeria to ethnically French parents. He was named for his paternal uncle who had been killed in the First World War. Althusser alleged that it was this man for whom his mother was intended and that she had married his father only because of the brother's demise, and that his mother treated his namesake, her son, as a substitute, to which he also attributes deep psychological damage.

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In childhood, following the death of his father, Althusser relocated with his mother and younger sister to rural metropolitan France, and he spent the rest of his childhood there. Althusser performed brilliantly at school in later years, and was eventually accepted to the elite École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris. However, he found himself enlisted in the run-up to World War Two, and like most French soldiers following the Fall of France Althusser was interned in a German POW camp. He was relatively content as a prisoner, and remained in the camp for the rest of the war, unlike many of his contemporaries who escaped to fight again—for this, Althusser later had reason to chastise himself.

Related Topics:
Paris - World War Two - Fall of France - German - POW

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Health

After the war, Althusser was able finally to attend ENS. However, he was in poor health, both mentally and physically. In 1947, he received electroconvulsive therapy. Althusser was from this time to suffer from periodic mental illness for the rest of his life. The ENS was sympathetic however, allowing him to reside in his own room in the school infirmary. Althusser found himself living at the ENS in the Rue d'Ulm for decades, except for periods of hospitalization.

Related Topics:
1947 - Electroconvulsive therapy

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Post-War

In 1946, Althusser met Hélène Rytman, a revolutionary of Lithuanian-Jewish ethnic origin, eight years older than him, who was to remain his companion until he killed her.

Related Topics:
1946 - Revolutionary - Lithuanian - Jewish

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Formerly a devout, if left-wing, Roman Catholic, in this period, Althusser made the signature decision of his life by devoting himself to Communism, joining the French Communist Party (PCF). Althusser over time became one of the, if not the, leading ideologue of the PCF.

Related Topics:
Left-wing - Roman Catholic - Communism - French Communist Party - Ideologue

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Althusser passed the agrégation in philosophy in 1948, which allowed him to become a tutor at the ENS.

Related Topics:
Agrégation - Philosophy - 1948

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Fall from Grace

On November 16, 1980, Althusser killed his wife. This had been preceded by a period of intense mental instability. The exact circumstances are debated, with some claiming it was deliberate, others accidental. Althusser himself claims not to have a clear memory of the event. Since he was alone with his wife when she died, it is difficult to come to firm conclusions.

Related Topics:
November 16 - 1980

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In part due to the efforts of several respected French thinkers on his behalf, Althusser was diagnosed as suffering from diminished responsibility, and he was not tried, but instead committed to the Sainte-Anne psychiatric hospital. Althusser remained in hospital until 1983. Upon release, he moved to Northern Paris and lived reclusively, seeing few people and no longer working, except for producing his autobiography. He died of a heart attack on October 22nd 1990 at the age of 72.

Related Topics:
Diminished responsibility - 1983

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