“Random can make us both happy and unhappy”

Imagine the player, if not yourself, with their lottery ticket in hand. As soon as he or she scratches it, it’s good for him. A chance that can turn out to be “enchanted”, here the possibility of winning, “it feels good. The reward system works, dopamine hits the brain”. The author of the book of the same name “Enchanted Chance” (1) Patrick Clervoy confirms: “I am a profound neurologist”. But are primarily the analyzes of an empathetic psychiatrist, a privileged witness to the anguish of life’s trials or the surprising cures of his patients, which are found on most pages (see box). the “opportunity [qui] can make us both happy and unhappy”this is what the doctor decided to examine carefully in this book, after it was published in 2018 “Powers of mind over body”. Science and the future was able to meet this connoisseur of the twists and turns of the human mind.

With the Covid pandemic, even the anti-vax paid a visit to Patrick Clervoy, esp “get sick leave”, he says. The doctor places a sheet of paper and a pen in front of us, and then writes what one of them presented to him as evidence of a state conspiracy to impose vaccines: “emacron covid”. Marks each letter and draws an anagram. which one? Answer: “Vaccinodrome”. In the book, under the subtitle “Those who play to awaken the meaning of the sentence”, another anagram is mentioned: “Bats give tension to the virus. The origin of the coronavirus pandemic is obvious, as if it was obvious that no one had noticed it before”.

The “secret knowledge” which provides a “narcissistic benefit”

For some, the psychiatrist notes, such an anagram could appear as “premonition”. When asked why conspiracists look for strange relationships between images, words, texts and other representations, Patrick Clervoy explains that “secret knowledge” provides a large “narcissistic benefit. I am rich in knowledge that others do not have… The Narcissistic Secret”. However, life is also made difficult by the conspiracy theory, which floats like the smell of a curse and a strong temptation for superstitions. These topics are discussed at length in the book by someone who knows well, among other things, the world of seafarers. This is how he narrates “the history of tiki in the Marquesas Islands”tiki is a statue that represents the spirit of the ancestors.

On a ship called the “Commandant-Rivière”, his friend, a medical officer, and a purse merchant load one day tikis bought during a stopover in the Marquesas. However, one of the ship’s officers drowned while diving on a neighboring atoll, and then damage occurred, water seeping into the storage. The sailors immediately ask if the wooden sculptures are on board “would not have been the cause of this series of accidents” ? It is said that “to ease the tension within the crew [les acquéreurs de tikis] decided to get rid of tiki”, throwing them into the sea. Another story, the one about the author’s daughter’s overjoyed discovery of a four-leaf clover, “promise of happiness”as everyone knows… But “you don’t have to find a four-leaf clover to make your life better”, says the psychiatrist. Better to be in the attitude “the anticipation, the attitude of expectation of those who say for themselves ‘something’ will happen. They don’t know what, where and how, but that thought already brings comfort”.

From the Fibonacci sequence to the myth of Faust
Warning, oxymoron. The word chance in the title of the book comes in the word hazardous, which calls people to be careful of the danger that lurks. Fate, fatality. But here are the coincidences… “I’m glad” ! What to make sure. How soothing the subtitle and its word “hope”, Patrick Clervoy’s priority. “Life is a struggle that feeds on the forces of hope”, insists the psychiatrist, who reproduces here the testimonies of patients whose anxieties he had to soothe before the tragedy of existence. “To live means to look for beauty, admire and thank the universe”, writes a follower of “Carpe Diem”. The reader will be able to appreciate 21 chapters with 161 intertitles in a linear way or choose at will, from the Fibonacci sequence and the mathematical order of the world to revisiting the myth of Faust, passing through curses, superstitions and… “happiness to be aware”. Something that will dissuade those who believe in coincidence and those who don’t.

If Patrick Clervoy decided to write this book and its multiple testimonies, it is to better understand that “in our consciousness, the perception of reality and imaginary fantasy are constantly mixed”. He invokes anecdotes from famous writers, as incredible as the one about Marcelo Pagnolo, who had to abandon, due to the occurrence of a series of accidents, the performances of the drama dedicated to Judas; Or that of Frédéric Dard, in which fiction and reality tragically mix, with the kidnapping of his daughter. Psychiatrist “atheistic faith” educated at the military college of Saint-Cyr, he shows all his affection for Saint-François d’Assise and Teilhard de Chardin and recalls that “Whenever people go through great crises, their children see messages of comfort in the sky”…

“Hope” etc “energy”

Engaged in several theaters of operations, he especially wants to help his human companions who have had to go through tragic situations. And fight against “pessimistic thinking about fatality, a poisonous idea” that everything is written in advance. On the contrary, “life is a struggle that feeds on the forces of hope”, hence the subtitle of the book. The term hope refers, for him, to two great personalities, “de Gaulle and Malraux”.

The first with his “Memoirs of Hope”, and above all, as a man “London, where there was hope” against the Nazi occupier. The second with his famous novel, which testifies to his involvement during the Spanish Civil War, with the Republican left against Franco’s fascists. The author reveals himself in his work. In chapter 13 entitled “My story as a series of spells”the memory of his father, the Mirage pilot, returns. “We thought ‘miracle'” he writes, personal pronoun “we” including here his twin brother, astronaut Jean-François Clervoywell known to readers Science and the future. “Hope is great energy”, insists Patrick Clervoy, whose forces are also pushing “Today to other planets because no goal seems unachievable” to people. Good optimism for Earthlings.

1) Enchanted opportunity and the forces of hope, Patrick Clervoy, Odile Jacob, 256 pages, €21.90