Maryse Choisy

Maryse Choisy (1903–1979) was a French philosophical writer, journalist and founder of the journal Psyché. Born in Saint-Jean-de-Luz on 1 February 1903, she was brought up by her rich aunts in a historical castle in the Basque country. After the end of the First World War, she went to study at Girton College, part of the University of Cambridge. In 1927, she sought psychoanalytical treatment from Sigmund Freud and upon recounting an anxiety dream to him Freud apparently concluded, correctly, that she had been an illegitimate child. Choisy was a critic of André Breton's Surrealist Manifesto saying that it was based on a misunderstanding of Freud's concept of the unconscious mind and as a response to the Surrealist Movement, she published her "Manifeste Surridealiste" in Les Nouvelles littéraires on 22 October 1927. It can also be found in her novel Mon Coeur dans une formule: C6 H8 (Az O3)6. Between 1935 and 1937, Maryse Choisy founded and directed three journals of occultism: Votre Bonheur (Your Happiness), Votre Destin(Your Destiny) and Consolation. It seems that, later, she does not wish to dwell on this period of her life. What she says about it in her memoirs is succinct:—“I created an esoteric weekly: Your Happiness , then Consolation . Henri Bergson gave me a brilliant article for the first issue. Each newspaper has its peak and its decline. After some time I saw myself surrounded by little magi who dreamed of Faustian adventures. They evoked an angel whose name ended in ael and were astonished that he broke dishes. After Peladan I discovered that it was dangerous to associate with alchemists and groups of occultists without being attached to some true and great Church. [...] "( On the way to God we first meet the devil , p.329) After meeting Pierre Teilhard in 1938 she converted to Catholicism and began to connect science, religion and psychoanalysis in her work. Her role in the founding of the journal Psyché (1946) reflected her concerns with the "ideals of the Roman Catholic church".