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day morning with Nizan, Aron, and Lagache-and in his advanced
studies, which he will prepare with Henri Delacroix, Sartre is mostly
involved in the field of psychology. His essay "The Image in Psycho–
logical Life: Its Role and Nature" receives a grade of "very good."
Nizan, already a follower of Spinoza, finds reassurance in com–
munism, while for Sartre, philosophy will always be a convenient,
privileged tool and a means of access to fiction. He borrows his in–
struments from the great philosophers, but without recognizing
himself in any of them, unable to sympathize. He has no master, no
mentor: "I want to be the man who knows the most about
everything," Sartre exclaims to Daniel Lagache, who is dumb–
founded by so much self-assurance and pride.
22
As philosopher, he
studies human behavior, develops a passion for psychology and
psychopathology, writes his first novel. The philosopher falls in love
with new art forms, sees the latest Murnau and Griffith, writes an
enthusiastic article, "An Apology for Cinema : Defense and Illustra–
tion of an International Art." "Cinema is the emblem of our era," it
concludes. "Thus, those who were twenty in 1895 blame it for the in–
evitable gap between our way of thinking and theirs. They accuse it,
as they once did Socrates, of corrupting the morals of youth ....
But cinema speaks to everyone .... This should please that
government minister who used to look at his watch and say , 'At this
very hour, throughout France, all our students are doing the same
homework.' Now, at 10 p .m., in Saint-Denis, at the Barbes, on the
Boulevards, at the Marivaux, at the Gaumont, people from every
social background sit together in a dark room as if in the nave of a
cathedral, craning their necks toward a screen that joins them in the
same anguish or the same joy, depending on whether they see the
crazy face of Andre Nox or Chaplin's grin. The people have aban–
doned themselves to this new art form."23
22. I have drawn all the information concerning Sartre's personality during his
years at the Ecole Normale and in preparation for it from my correspondence and
conversations with Rene Aillet, letters of September 24, October 11 , and November
1, 1982; Marcel Bouisset letter of April 7, 1983; Maurice Deixonne, letter of April
27, 1983; Etienne Fuzeiller, conversations, 1983; Henri Guillemin , letter ofJune 7,
1982; Vladimir Jankelevitch, letter ofJuly 2, 1982; Olivier Lacombe , conversation
of March 21 , 1983; Robert Lucot, letter of April 3, 1983; Andre Monchoux, letter
of March 23, 1983; Marcel Paquot , letter of March 23, 1983; Louis Robert, letter of
March 25 , 1983; Edouard Selzer, conversation of June 1, 1983; Pierre Vilar, con–
versation of June 2, 1982; Robert-Leon Wagner, conversation of April 28, 1980.
23. Arlette Elka'im-Sartre's archives.
