The diseases of the world of Tintin

Martin Ducret, doctor and journalist at Doctor’s Daily talks to us about an original subject today: the health problems of Tintin and his comic book friends. He refers to several scientific articles that have established hypotheses on the diseases from which the characters in the adventures of the famous reporter would suffer.

franceinfo: Diseases that would already concern Tintin himself?

Martin Ducret: Yes, it’s not obvious when you read the comics, but when you look more closely, you notice that Tintin has the size of a child, that he is beardless, that he does not age, at least over the course of 23 albums spanning 60 years, and that he doesn’t really have a libido, nor a love story.

He would therefore be suffering from a very real disease called, get this, hypogonadotropic hypogonadism! It is a dysfunction of a gland in the brain, the pituitary gland, which no longer produces growth hormone. Which explains Tintin’s childish physique. And this disease would be secondary to the repeated cranial traumas of our hero with the powder puff: he falls into apples more than 50 times, during his adventures.

Captain Haddock is not spared either?

No, quite the contrary. As you know, Tintin’s famous companion is an alcoholic. And because of his fondness for rum and Loch Lomond whiskey, in addition to liver disease, cirrhosis, he also suffers from Korsakoff syndrome. It is a vitamin B1 deficiency that leads to neurological disorders, including memory loss, confusion or hallucinations. Symptoms particularly present in 2 albums: The Crab with the Golden Claws And The Unicorn’s Secret and which could also explain his flowery language and his many mood swings.

What about the other characters?

Well, there’s Tryphon Tournesol’s deafness, which isn’t very hard to guess. The Duponts and Duponds could have psychiatric disorders: they constantly repeat what the other says, move with a similar rhythm and cadence – this is called echolalia and echopraxia in medical terms – and they are often distracted , disorganized and manipulative. As for Castafiore, forgetful and fickle, with an inability to remember names, she would suffer from the onset of dementia.

Isn’t all these illnesses a bit exaggerated?

I agree that you have to read between the bubbles to find them. But perhaps it was Hergé’s intention not to explicitly mention these illnesses, synonymous with suffering and sadness, so as not to taint the optimism conveyed by the Tintin albums. An optimism that is the strength and success of this universal series.

Bibliographies

1- Acquired growth hormone deficiency and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism in a subject with repeated head trauma, or Tintin goes to the neurologist

2- Tintin and colleagues go to the doctor