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1 2 3 4T 5 6 7 8 9T 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 101 autobiography five Autobiographical Notes by Louis X—— In Dr. Paul Garnier’s The Fetishists (1895) Louis X——, twenty-six years old, is a man of letters and belongs to a rich family with numerous indications of mental instability , principally on the maternal side. One of his mother’s brothers committed suicide; they say that it was during a bout of brain fever, but it is more likely that alcohol played the greater role in this crisis. Another brother, having suffered grave and repeated convulsions in his childhood, has always been considered mentally unbalanced, an eccentric, even though he is well educated and very intelligent. They cite this rather bizarre fact about him: in 1848, having entered the Tuileries with the insurgents,1 he stole a small piece of cloth torn off a piece of furniture, but soon, overcome by remorse, he went without delay to the tomb of his father in order to beg forgiveness for his theft. His mother considered him a madman . Though the hereditary defect is less pronounced on the other side of his family, the intemperate habits of Louis X——’s father should be taken into account. One last fact to point out relating to this heredity is that one cousin was confined to the asylum of Ville-Evrard.2 To us Louis X—— seemed to be a perfectly well brought-up man, used to the contact of elegant and select society. He was very well groomed in his appearance and in the care of his whole body. He gave us the impression of a sophisticated young man in everything that has to do with fashion and grooming. Dressed in shoes polished to the most brilliant shine, he wears a pince-nez for reasons of style, he claims, rather than out of necessity, because his sight is sufficiently good, and he replaces it with a monocle when,  1 2 3 4T 5 6 7 8 9T 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 102 AUTOBIOGRAPHIES AS CASE STUDIES as he says, he wants to make an impression. His deportment is calm; his gestures are sober and reserved; his voice, in its monotonous intonations, is sweet and not very virile. Tall, svelte, he has hair and a beard that are golden blond in color. His hands are manicured like those of a woman who devotes hours to this extremely meticulous upkeep. His fingernails are the object of a veritable cult and are kept at an extraordinary length that would be incompatible with any manual occupation. The exterior of Louis X——’s body reveals only one structural anomaly. On the right-hand side of the head and face, the temple and parietal bump are more prominent than on the other side, and underneath them is a sort of fissure from front to back as if the parts have been hollowed out by a sharp instrument. The roof of the month is arched. The accused has always enjoyed excellent health, but from an early age he attracted attention because of the anomalies of his moral organization. He has always had a timid character, not very demonstrative. “No one has ever seen him laugh,” his brother told us. Because he enjoyed being alone, he used to spend the greater part of his time inside his room. He displayed a love of paradox and was inclined to irony and scorn. Except for that, he had never been subject to serious criticism either at home or at school. His behavior was normal, due to passivity rather than a desire to earn praise. His habits were bizarre. He had some manias that are comical. Very meticulous in the care that he devotes to his grooming—and this ever since the age of twelve or thirteen—he would anoint his face with pomade and then powder it, handling the mirror the entire time like an extremely coquettish woman. When he is out in the country, he takes the most meticulous and ridiculous precautions to protect his complexion from the ardor of the sun. His brother has often found him in the morning immobile in his bed in a grotesque position with his head under the covers in order, he says, not...

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