Reading French Psychoanalysis

840 Pages·2010·5.31 MB·English

by  Dana Birksted-Breen

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Reading French Psychoanalysis
In this book, Dana Birksted-Breen and Sara Flanders of the British Psycho-
analytical Society, and Alain Gibeault of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society,
provide an overview of how French psychoanalysis has developed since Lacan.
Focusing primarily on the work of psychoanalysts from the French Psycho-
analytical Association and from the Paris Psychoanalytical Society, the two
British psychoanalysts view the evolution of theory as it appears to them from
the outside, while the French psychoanalyst explains and elaborates from inside
the French psychoanalytic discourse. Seminal and representative papers have
been chosen to illuminate what is special about French thinking. A substantial
general introduction argues in favour of the specificity of ‘French psycho-
analysis’, tracing its early influences and highlighting specific contemporary
developments.
Sections are made up of introductory material by Alain Gibeault, followed by
illustrative papers in the following categories:
(cid:127) the history of psychoanalysis in France
(cid:127) the pioneers and their legacy
(cid:127) the setting and the process of psychoanalysis
(cid:127) phantasy and representation
(cid:127) the body and the drives
(cid:127) masculine and feminine sexuality
(cid:127) psychosis.
An excellent introduction to French psychoanalytical debate, Reading French
Psychoanalysis sheds a complementary light on thinking that has evolved dif-
ferently in England and North America. It will be ideal reading for beginners
and advanced students of clinical theory as well as experienced psychoanalysts
wanting to know more about French psychoanalytic theory, and how it has
developed.
Dana Birksted-Breen is a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst of the
British Psychoanalytical Society. She is the General Editor of the New Library
of Psychoanalysis and the Joint Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of
Psychoanalysis.
Sara Flanders is a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst of the British
Psychoanalytical Society.
Alain Gibeault is a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst of the Paris
Psychoanalytical Society and Director of the E. & J. Kestemberg Centre for
Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.
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THE NEW LIBRARY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS
General Editor Dana Birksted-Breen
The New Library of Psychoanalysis was launched in 1987 in association with
the Institute of Psychoanalysis, London. It took over from the International
Psychoanalytical Library, which published many of the early translations of the
works of Freud and the writings of most of the leading British and Continental
psychoanalysts.
The purpose of the New Library of Psychoanalysis is to facilitate a greater
and more widespread appreciation of psychoanalysis and to provide a forum
for increasing mutual understanding between psychoanalysts and those
working in other disciplines such as the social sciences, medicine, philosophy,
history, linguistics, literature and the arts. It aims to represent different trends
both in British psychoanalysis and in psychoanalysis generally. The New
Library of Psychoanalysis is well placed to make available to the English-
speaking world psychoanalytic writings from other European countries and
to increase the interchange of ideas between British and American
psychoanalysts.
The Institute, together with the British Psychoanalytical Society, runs a
low-fee psychoanalytic clinic, organizes lectures and scientific events con-
cerned with psychoanalysis and publishes the International Journal of Psycho-
analysis. It also runs a prestigious and internationally admired training course
leading to qualification in the British Psychoanalytic Council and in the Inter-
national Psychoanalytic Association, the body which preserves internationally
agreed standards of training, of professional entry, and of professional ethics and
practice for psychoanalysis as initiated and developed by Sigmund Freud.
Distinguished members of the Institute have included Michael Balint, Wilfred
Bion, Ronald Fairbairn, Anna Freud, Ernest Jones, Melanie Klein, John
Rickman and Donald Winnicott.
Previous General Editors include David Tuckett, Elizabeth Spillius and
Susan Budd. Previous and current Members of the Advisory Board include
Christopher Bollas, Ronald Britton, Catalina Bronstein, Donald Campbell,
Sara Flanders, Stephen Grosz, John Keene, Eglé Laufer, Juliet Mitchell, Michael
Parsons, Rosine Jozef Perelberg, Richard Rusbridger, Mary Target, David
Taylor, and Alessandra Lemma, who is Assistant Editor.
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ALSO IN THIS SERIES
Impasse and Interpretation Herbert Rosenfeld
Psychoanalysis and Discourse Patrick Mahony
The Suppressed Madness of Sane Men Marion Milner
The Riddle of Freud Estelle Roith
Thinking, Feeling, and Being Ignacio Matte-Blanco
The Theatre of the Dream Salomon Resnik
Melanie Klein Today: Volume 1, Mainly Theory Edited by Elizabeth Bott Spillius
Melanie Klein Today: Volume 2, Mainly Practice Edited by Elizabeth Bott Spillius
Psychic Equilibrium and Psychic Change: Selected Papers of Betty Joseph Edited by
Michael Feldman and Elizabeth Bott Spillius
About Children and Children-No-Longer: Collected Papers 1942–80 Paula
Heimann. Edited by Margret Tonnesmann
The Freud–Klein Controversies 1941–45 Edited by Pearl King and Riccardo
Steiner
Dream, Phantasy and Art Hanna Segal
Psychic Experience and Problems of Technique Harold Stewart
Clinical Lectures on Klein and Bion Edited by Robin Anderson
From Fetus to Child Alessandra Piontelli
A Psychoanalytic Theory of Infantile Experience: Conceptual and Clinical Reflections
E. Gaddini. Edited by Adam Limentani
The Dream Discourse Today Edited and introduced by Sara Flanders
The Gender Conundrum: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Femininity
and Masculinity Edited and introduced by Dana Breen
Psychic Retreats John Steiner
The Taming of Solitude: Separation Anxiety in Psychoanalysis Jean-Michel
Quinodoz
Unconscious Logic: An Introduction to Matte-Blanco’s Bi-logic and Its Uses Eric
Rayner
Understanding Mental Objects Meir Perlow
Life, Sex and Death: Selected Writings of William Gillespie Edited and introduced
by Michael Sinason
What Do Psychoanalysts Want? The Problem of Aims in Psychoanalytic Therapy
Joseph Sandler and Anna Ursula Dreher
Michael Balint: Object Relations, Pure and Applied Harold Stewart
Hope: A Shield in the Economy of Borderline States Anna Potamianou
Psychoanalysis, Literature and War: Papers 1972–1995 Hanna Segal
Emotional Vertigo: Between Anxiety and Pleasure Danielle Quinodoz
Early Freud and Late Freud Ilse Grubrich-Simitis
A History of Child Psychoanalysis Claudine and Pierre Geissmann
Belief and Imagination: Explorations in Psychoanalysis Ronald Britton
A Mind of One’s Own: A Kleinian View of Self and Object Robert A. Caper
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Psychoanalytic Understanding of Violence and Suicide Edited by Rosine Jozef
Perelberg
On Bearing Unbearable States of Mind Ruth Riesenberg-Malcolm
Psychoanalysis on the Move: The Work of Joseph Sandler Edited by Peter Fonagy,
Arnold M. Cooper and Robert S. Wallerstein
The Dead Mother: The Work of André Green Edited by Gregorio Kohon
The Fabric of Affect in the Psychoanalytic Discourse André Green
The Bi-Personal Field: Experiences of Child Analysis Antonino Ferro
The Dove that Returns, the Dove that Vanishes: Paradox and Creativity in
Psychoanalysis Michael Parsons
Ordinary People and Extra-Ordinary Protections: A Post-Kleinian Approach to the
Treatment of Primitive Mental States Judith Mitrani
The Violence of Interpretation: From Pictogram to Statement Piera Aulagnier
The Importance of Fathers: A Psychoanalytic Re-Evaluation Judith Trowell and
Alicia Etchegoyen
Dreams That Turn Over a Page: Paradoxical Dreams in Psychoanalysis Jean-Michel
Quinodoz
The Couch and the Silver Screen: Psychoanalytic Reflections on European Cinema
Edited and introduced by Andrea Sabbadini
In Pursuit of Psychic Change: The Betty Joseph Workshop Edited by Edith
Hargreaves and Arturo Varchevker
The Quiet Revolution in American Psychoanalysis: Selected Papers of Arnold M.
Cooper Arnold M. Cooper. Edited and introduced by Elizabeth L.
Auchincloss
Seeds of Illness, Seeds of Recovery: The Genesis of Suffering and the Role of
Psychoanalysis Antonino Ferro
The Work of Psychic Figurability: Mental States Without Representation César
Botella and Sára Botella
Key Ideas for a Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Misrecognition and Recognition of the
Unconscious André Green
The Telescoping of Generations: Listening to the Narcissistic Links Between
Generations Haydée Faimberg
Glacial Times: A Journey Through the World of Madness Salomon Resnik
This Art of Psychoanalysis: Dreaming Undreamt Dreams and Interrupted Cries
Thomas H. Ogden
Psychoanalysis as Therapy and Storytelling Antonino Ferro
Psychoanalysis in the 21st Century: Competitors or Collaborators? Edited by David
M. Black
Recovery of the Lost Good Object Eric Brenman
The Many Voices of Psychoanalysis Roger Kennedy
Projected Shadows: Psychoanalytic Reflections on the Representation of Loss in
European Cinema Edited by Andrea Sabbadini
Feeling the Words: Neuropsychoanalytic Understanding of Memory and the
Unconscious Mauro Mancia
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Encounters with Melanie Klein: Selected Papers of Elizabeth Spillius Elizabeth
Spillius
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Hanna Segal. Edited by Nicola Abel-Hirsch
Constructions and the Analytic Field: History, Scenes and Destiny Domenico
Chianese
Psychoanalysis Comparable and Incomparable: The Evolution of a Method to Describe
and Compare Psychoanalytic Approaches David Tuckett, Roberto Basile, Dana
Birksted-Breen, Tomas Böhm, Paul Denis, Antonino Ferro, Helmut Hinz,
Arne Jemstedt, Paola Mariotti and Johan Schubert
Time, Space and Phantasy Rosine Jozef Perelberg
Rediscovering Psychoanalysis: Thinking and Dreaming, Learning and Forgetting
Thomas H. Ogden
Mind Works: Technique and Creativity in Psychoanalysis Antonino Ferro
Doubt, Conviction and the Analytic Process: Selected Papers of Michael Feldman
Michael Feldman. Edited by Betty Joseph
Melanie Klein in Berlin: Her First Psychoanalyses of Children Claudia Frank
The Psychotic Wavelength: A Psychoanalytic Perspective for Psychiatry Richard Lucas
TITLES IN THE NEW LIBRARY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS
TEACHING SERIES
Reading Freud: A Chronological Exploration of Freud’s Writings Jean-Michel
Quinodoz
Listening to Hanna Segal: Her Contribution to Psychoanalysis Jean-Michel
Quinodoz
Reading French Psychoanalysis Edited by Dana Birksted-Breen, Sara Flanders
and Alain Gibeault
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THE NEW LIBRARY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS:
TEACHING SERIES
3
General Editor: Dana Birksted-Breen
Reading French Psychoanalysis
Edited by Dana Birksted-Breen, Sara Flanders and
Alain Gibeault
With selected material translated by David Alcorn,
Sophie Leighton and Andrew Weller
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First published 2010
by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2010 Selection and editorial matter, Dana Birksted-Breen, Sara Flanders and
Alain Gibeault; individual chapters, the contributors
Copyright © Translation of introductions by Alain Gibeault; chapter 40, key terms, tables and
author biographies, David Alcorn
Copyright © Translation of chapters 13, 16, 22, 23, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39,
Sophie Leighton
Copyright © Translation of chapters 1, 2, 9, 10, 11, 14, 20, 21, 26, Andrew Weller
This book is supported by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as part of the Burgess programme run
by the Cultural Department of the French Embassy in London. (www.frenchbooknews.com)
Translated with the assistance of the French Ministry of Culture – National Book Centre [Ouvrage
publié avec le concours du Ministère français chargé de la culture – Centre national du livre]
Typeset in Bembo and Helvetica by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
Paperback cover design by Sandra Heath
Paperback cover photograph: © AFP/Getty Images
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
This publication has been produced with paper manufactured to strict environmental
standards and with pulp derived from sustainable forests.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reading French psychoanalysis / edited by Dana Birksted-Breen, Sara Flanders and Alain
Gibeault ; translated by David Alcorn, Sophie Leighton, and Andrew Weller.
p. cm.
Translated from the French.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Psychoanalysis – France – History. 2. Lacan, Jacques, 1901–1981. 3. Freud,
Sigmund, 1856–1939. I. Breen, Dana. II. Flanders, Sara, 1944–. III. Gibeault,
Alain, 1942–
BF175.R37 2009
150.19′50944 – dc22
2009011663
ISBN: 978-0-415-48502-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-48503-6 (pbk)
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements xv
Note on the paperback cover image xix
Filiations in French psychoanalysis xx
1926–2009: The development of psychoanalytic societies in France xxi
General Introduction 1
Dana Birksted-Breen and Sara Flanders
Section I
History of psychoanalysis in France 53
Introduction 54
Alain Gibeault
1 Some distinctive features of the history of psychoanalysis in
France (2004) 60
Alain de Mijolla
2 What has become of the lines of advance in psychoanalysis?
The evolution of practices in France (2001) 73
Daniel Widlöcher
Section II
The pioneers and their legacy 87
Introduction 88
Alain Gibeault
3 The mirror stage as formative of the function of the I as revealed
in psychoanalytic experience (1949) 97
Jacques Lacan
4 The non-verbal relationship in psycho-analytic treatment (1957) 105
Sacha Nacht
ix
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