Abstract
Jean Dominique Bauby, former editor of Elle, suffereda stroke to his brain stem that left him with locked-in syndrome. Subsequently, through blinking his left eye, he writes his memoirof this experience, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Thispaper explores the meaning of embodiment, especially as one'sbody bears upon one's personal identity. It explores the variouschallenges and threats to selfhood that result from Bauby'sexperience and recounts how Bauby rises to the challenge throughhis memory and imagination.
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NOTES AND REFERENCES
Bauby, Jean-Dominique, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, translated by Jeremy Lagatt. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1997, p. 57.
Ibid., pp. 126–127.
Ibid., pp. 4–5.
Ibid., p. 77.
Patterson J, Grabois M. Locked-in syndrome: a review of 139 cases. Stroke 1986; 14: 758. The manifestations of the disease vary between patients so the emphasis in this paper is specifically on Bauby's disease.
Marcel, Gabriel. TheMystery of Being, Vol. I, translated by G. S. Fraser. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1950, p. 93.
Zaner, Richard. The Context of Self: A Phenomenological Inquiry Using Medicine as a Clue. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1981, p. 41.
Zaner, Context, p. 76.
Ibid., pp. 37–38.
Ibid., p. 37.
Losing, as opposed to someone whose orientation has always been limited. e.g. someone who has been bed-ridden from birth.
Zaner, Context: 37.
Bauby, pp. 100 and 102.
See also reference to Goldstein's Aftereffects of Brain Injuries in War. New York: Grune and Stratton, 1942 in Zaner's Context.
Zaner, Context, p. 42.
Ibid., Context, p. 43. See also Marcel's Metaphysical Journal: 247 and Zaner's “The Mystery of the Body-Qua-Mine,” in The Philosophy of Gabriel Marcel, pp. 321-323.
Ibid., Context, p. 49.
Ibid., Context, p. 54.
Bauby, pp. 71 and 75.
Zaner, Context, p. 49.
Bauby, pp. 24–25.
See Bauby, pp. 45, 86-87, 93.
Ibid., p. 32.
Ibid., p. 33.
Ibid., pp. 24–25.
Zaner, Context, pp. 60–61.
Ibid., p. 169.
Bauby, pp. 8–9.
This is the fate of many patients with LIS, although attempts are made to facilitate swallowing. See Haig et al., Mortality and Complications of the Locked-In Syndrome. Archives of Physical and Medical Rehabilitation, 1987; January, p. 25.
Bauby, p. 36.
Zaner, Context, p. 176.
Bauby, p. 84.
Ibid., p. 42.
Marcel, Gabriel, The Mystery of Being, Vol. I, p. 119.
Marcel. Mystery of Being, Vol. I, p. 123.
See section entitled “Self and Body.”
Marcel, Mystery of Being Vol. I, p. 123.
Bauby, p. 16.
Ibid., pp. 16–17.
Zaner, Context, p. 52.
Zaner, Richard. The Problem of Embodiment: Some Contributions to a Phenomenology of the Body, 2nd edn. The Hague: Martin Nijhoff, 1971, p. 26.
Marcel, Mystery of Being, Vol. I: 96. See also Marcel's Metaphysical Journal, 247 in which Marcel says that the body is an instrumental mediation but does not elaborate as to the meaning of this statement.
Marcel, Homo Viator: Introduction to a Metaphysic of Hope, translated by Emma Craufurd. Chicago: Henry Regnery Co, 1951, p. 13.
Marcel, “Ego and its Relation to Others,” Homo Viator, p. 23.
Bauby, p. 55.
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Dudzinski, D. The Diving Bell Meets the Butterfly: Identity Lost andRe-Membered. Theor Med Bioeth 22, 33–46 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009981213630
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009981213630