>Nadja and Breton

To behave irrationally, amorally, and therefore purely, was one of the ideals of early surrealism. No one was so adapted to living an authentic surrealist life as the madman, saluted On many occasions by the surrealists as the guardian of man's integrity. Associating this heroic figure with that of woman, equally prized as a source of revelation, André Breton and Louis Aragon joined in 1928 to do homage to the female patients of Charcot who had been victims of hysteria, now seen as a glorious and magical state of vision. Already in 1920, Breton had anticipated the doctrine of amour fou when he wrote "On peut aimer plus qu'aucune autre une femme insensée." It is therefore not surprising that Breton should have been immediately attracted when he first met a mentally disturbed girl calling herself Nadja on the Place Lafayette on the 4th October 1926. At once concerning himself with the girl to the apparent exclusion of all other preoccupations, Breton embarked on a relationship of a more than casual significance.