Louis Althusser; Marxist Philosopher

Louis Althusser, 72, one of Europe’s most prominent Marxist philosophers. Althusser, who had a history of emotional instability in his later years, was the object of sensationalistic news coverage after he strangled his wife in 1980 on the premises of the Ecole Normale Superieur, where he taught. In 1981 he was judged mentally incompetent to stand trial and was hospitalized at a Paris psychiatric facility. He was released in 1984. Althusser was best known for his provocative interpretations of the works of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and Mao Tse-tung. He underlined the importance of Marx’s view of class struggle as determining the course of history. In “For Marx,” published in 1965, he argued that Marx did not become truly revolutionary until later in life. In “Lenin and Philosophy” in 1969, Althusser said that adopting a philosophical position was never without political repercussions. Althusser joined the French Communist Party in 1948, and though he never quit, was one of its most outspoken critics. In 1978 he published a series of articles in the newspaper Le Mondeoutlining the party’s failings. On Oct. 22 in a hospital south of Paris of undisclosed causes.