Louis Althusser

The Future Lasts Forever

A long time after the drama occurred, I learned that two of my close friends (doubtless not the only ones) had not wanted me to be declared unfit to plead, a decision based on the medico-legal opinions expressed by three experts at Sainte-Annes in the week following H6lknes death.1 They would have preferred my case to come to court. Unfortunately, it was a pious wish on their part. I was in no fit state to take part in legal proceedings on account of my serious mental state (confusion and hallucinations). The examining magistrate who visited me could not get me to say a word. What is more, I no longer enjoyed my freedom or my civic rights since I was automatically committed and under supervision on the orders of the prefect of police. Deprived of all choice, I was in fact the victim of an official procedure I could not escape and to which I therefore had to submit. Such a procedure has its obvious advantages. It protects the accused, who is judged not to be responsible for his actions. But it conceals powerful disadvantages that are less obvious. Certainly, after such a long and trying experience, I am surprised by