Definition for Jean-Dominique Bauby

Jazz

Jejunum

Jean-Dominique Bauby was a well-known French journalist, author and editor of the French fashion magazine ELLE. He had two children with Sylvie de la Rochefoucauld, a son named Théophile and a daughter named Céleste.

Biography

The name Jean-Dominique Bauby may never enter the annals of psychology; it may not even be recognized by most Americans. But Bauby’s last work sheds light on the nature of consciousness and what it means to be human.

Bauby was the former editor-in-chief of Elle magazine. A noted French journalist, the 45-year-old led a fastpaced life filled with glamour and travel, until December 8, 1995. A massive stroke felled Bauby and left him in a locked-in coma. Locked-in syndrome is characterized by a virtually complete paralysis, although the brain (and the mind) are left largely unaffected. The condition is like being “a mind in a jar” to use Bauby’s own words.

But what words? Unable to move, unable to speak, and dependent on machines for all of his bodily functions, Bauby’s prognosis was grim. He found, however, that the muscle of his left eyelid was still under his control, and through a series of blinks and twitches Bauby was able to communicate his mental alertness to his caregivers. In fact, his nurses would recite a specially-sequenced alphabet, to which Bauby would blink on certain letters. In this fashion he was able to craft words, sentences, and entire discussions with his doctors and letters to his friends. One such letter, to French editor Robert Laffont, prompted an offer to compose a book about his condition. Through the tedious process of “blinking dictation,” Bauby wrote, letter by letter, Le Scaphrande et le Papillon (The Bubble and the Butterfly), a 137-page account of his locked-in state. In it he recounts the daily tedium of physical therapy sessions, of being unable to swallow the sea of saliva that permanently wells in his mouth, or to shoo the flies that walk brazenly across his face. Deeper reflections reveal the anger and frustration of being imprisoned in a shell of a body, unable to hold his son or talk to his loved ones. Through it all, however, Bauby retained his joie de vivre. He founded an association for other victims of locked-in syndrome, appeared on a French television special about his condition, and proposed several other blinking/writing projects. Unfortunately, Bauby was unable to see these projects to completion. Within 72 hours of his book’s publication, he died. The light that he shed on this fascinating and macabre syndrome, however, illuminates an indomitable spirit. Bauby’s story is told in the 2007 French film “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” directed by Julian Schnabel.