Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) and Peptide Hormones. Frontiers of Hormone Research. Vol. 9

Marcel Proust was the son and brother of eminent Parisian physicians. He was fascinated by medicine and psychology, which he pursued both for his own interest and as material for his writing. Undoubtedly Proust had a number of "organic" diseases, but many of them, such as asthma, were considered by the physicians of his day to be purely manifestations of emotional disturbances. Others, such as his chronic dyspepsia, probably reflected his psychoneurosis. He was a practicing homosexual at a time when revealing his predilection would have brought shame on him and his family, so not only did he hide his sexual preference from public view, but he converted his lover in A La Recherche du Temps Perdu into a young woman. This and many other well-established clinical facts offer Dr. Straus the opportunity for long CPC-like expositions of recent developments in understanding about Proust's physical diseases and emotional disturbances. For example, he discusses the physical basis of asthma, including mention of the role of IgE and the "slowreacting substance." Proust's insomnia elicits a discussion of REM sleep, phobias, night terrors, and the meaning of dreams. All the same, Straus's exploration of Proust's interest in the meaning of dreams is important both because of the light it sheds on the development of the writer's work and for the sophisticated psychological approach Proust developed, parallel with Freud though in a less clinical vein. The author is far more familiar with the critical literature on Proust and previous explanations of his behavior than I am. Thus I found the book of interest when it discussed the behavior of the writer, especially as it related to his literary work. I found it less enthralling when it proposed to instruct me in modern medicine. But perhaps the book is not intended for physicians. For the informed lay reader, who keeps up with medicine with the help of the news magazines, Straus's discussion will be understandable and perhaps illuminating.