Citation

Bogousslavsky J. Rev. Neurol. (Masson) 2003; 159(2): 171-179.

Vernacular Title

L'amour perdu de Gui et Madeleine.

Affiliation

Service de Neurologie, CHU Vaudois, Lausanne, Suisse, Switzerland. julien.bogousslavsky@chuv.hospvd.ch

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12660569

Abstract

The nature and the neurological consequences of the shell wound to the head of the famous French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, on March 17, 1916, during World War I, remain unclear. However, his contemporaries and biographers have been unanimous to state that this event was a major shift in his life. His personality and behavior changed dramatically, and his affective relationships were deeply modified, the most significant example being his rapid disinterest for his fiancée Madeleine, to whom he had written passionate letters nearly every day before the trauma. The study of Apollinaire's letters, scarce medical reports, available memories from friends, and Apollinaire's helmet allow to understand better what brain lesion he had and why neurobehavioral dysfunction developed. While an "intracranial abscess" had been emphasized initially, clinical manifestations, free interval, no infectious problem, and quick resolution of hemiparesis and seizures after a burr hole was performed strongly suggest a chronic subdural hematoma in the right temporal region. Irritability, susceptibility, emotional intolerance, affect flattening, anxiety, and personality change fit perfectly with right temporal lobe dysfunction involving the lateral-basal area. Sparing of mesial-temporal, parietal, and frontal regions explained the absence of significant memory, cognitive, and executive impairment, without disturbed creative skills as a poet and art writer. This cognitive-affective dissociation secondary to isolated right temporal post-traumatic lesion allows to delineate the "deep sorrow" of Apollinaire during the two and a half years before he died from Spanish influenza in 1918.

Language: fr