Severe Healing, by Jean Paulhan

This little book seems a little arduous in its beginnings, an analysis of the thoughts of a patient; not delirium, but a sort of half-wakefulness devoid of feelings, and populated by fixed images. Then the desire to heal penetrates into this slowed consciousness, using, to keep the idea of ​​healing present, the fixity of these images. Finally, the emptiness of the first convalescence. This first part is excellently crafted, but the reader, unaccustomed to this soft and fleeting thought, fears encountering a disjointed book.
The second part shows the patient seen from the outside, by the one who loves him. School psychologists would say that after his introspection, we can study his behaviors.
This second part is a united, strong and full feeling: it is from it that Severe Healing derives its unity, its meaning and its strength. The desire to heal, a sentimental jealousy absorbed and destroyed by a higher feeling, the moments of struggle, compensate for a small, intense and tight drama. The third part, although the patient picks up the thread of the story, the second continues much more than the first; sentimental reconciliation precedes and prepares reconciliation with life.
We enjoy rereading this little book, and bringing together all its details around the unity of feeling revealed by its ending. It is above all a joy to return to this perfect style, of a conciseness and accuracy with which a man of science seems to have collaborated with an artist. Our contemporary works are usually remarkable for the insufficiency and falsity of their analyses. The interior monologue is above all a pretext for broadcasts. Jean Paulhan is a striking exception, and perhaps, surprised by this contrast, the readers who will perhaps reproach him for the excess in the opposite qualities.
I regret the sobriety in publishing that Paulhan shows and the too limited edition of La Guérison Severe; but if this work fails to succeed, I am sure that it will last and be appreciated later: it has this stripped perfection where time cannot bite.

(Article published in Le Disque Vert, 3rd year, 4th series, n° 3.)