Rehabilitation of The Body

Reflections on—BERTHERAT, THÉRÈSE; BERNSTEIN, CAROLLE. The Body Has Its Reasons. Paris, Ed. du Seuil, 1976.

BERTHERAT, THÉRÈSE; BERNSTEIN, CAROLLE. The Messenger of the Body. Paris, Ed. du Seuil, 1980

These two works by Thérèse Bertherat are of very special interest in many respects and above all because Mme Bertherat managed to make a creative recovery from a cruel ordeal. which, if only on this level, should be a moving lesson for us all.

In fact her husband, our colleague Dr Bertherat, was shot dead by a madman. Mme Bertherat, a widow with two children, re-orientated her life, took up the study of kinesitherapy and psychology, underwent analysis, studied classical methods and became an enthusiast for all those methods which were as yet far from classical.

Even on the human level this sudden misfortune, which was to reveal so many talents, is a monumental lesson; by its example it tells us far better than long speeches that the great family of psychiatry in general and small therapy groups in particular are a human élite which should meet together, exchange knowledge, and be mutually helpful and supportive. For if, nolens volens, in our desire to heal man and resculpt him from the rough-hewn human stone, we escape the banality of current daily life, none of us, in so doing, escapes the risk of a certain Promethean inflation.

Over and above the personal fate of the author, whom I do not have the honour of knowing personally, these works bear fruits of astonishing richness. Both works are supported by a pleasing style and an ease of expression such that the fluidity of the form might almost belie the precious austerity and harshness of the foundation.

Such a pleasing composition must be the expression not only of skill as a writer but also of a superior intelligence which is undoubtedly devoted to the body but would never have achieved such success were not this intelligence of the body enriched by an intelligence of the heart and the mind.

Besides, the author sums this up