Les arcanes d’un intérêt biographique : l’exemple de Vaslav Nijinski

Abstract

Psychiatrists are curious people. They are as interested in the people studied, in their history as in the mechanics of their personality, in the construction of the identity of the subjects encountered and in the genesis of their psychopathological disorders that they present. Their curiosity is expressed in particular by taking an interest in the lives of their patients to understand the context of their suffering and find levers for change and/or healing, but also by revisiting the life and history of people whom the history to keep track of. This interest is certainly intellectual but it also carries meaning for the biographer, the choice of his study and his perspective. For my part, I chose to be interested in the life, the work but also in the psychopathological disorders of Vaslav Nijinsky, the “god of the dance”. This choice is not trivial. It resonates with my interests. By wondering about this approach, this is the opportunity to undermine the work of a biographer. Vaslav Nijinsky was one of the greatest dancers of his time and even of his century. All it took was one appearance at the Ballets Russes’ first performance (The Pavilion of Armide) in Paris for the public to call him the “god of dance”. This formidable dancer excelled in movement and dramatic expressiveness. He was an extraordinary jumper and a great choreographer. But his life was also a tragedy. Indeed, his career as an artist lasted barely ten years, from 1908 to 1919, including two years hiatus because of the war. Throughout his life he has always been alienated from institutions, from men and above all from disease. Vaslav Nijinsky suffered from a schizophrenia with a dysthymic onset and a deficit course, for lack of treatment, which took him from hospitals to clinics, from 1919 to his death, in 1950 (at 59-years-old), taking him through the history of psychiatry at the beginning of the century and meet famous doctors (Bleuler, Sakel, etc.). To be interested in this dancer is also to be interested in the history of the arts at the turn of the century and the impermanence of medical knowledge. It is a source of learning about the mysteries of life, the genesis of destiny, but also the evolution of psychiatric care.