Jacques Lacan & Co: A History of Psychoanalysis in France, 1925-1985

802 Pages·1990·26.774 MB·English

by  Elisabeth Roudinesco (Author), Jeffrey Mehlman (Translator)

Jacques Lacan & Co.

Elisabeth Roudinesco
Jacques Lacan & Co.
A History o f Psychoanalysis
in France, 1925—1985
Translated, with a Foreword, by Jeffrey Mehlman
The University of Chicago Press Chicago
Elisabeth Roudinesco is the author or coauthor of several previous books
on psychoanalysis.
Jeffrey Mehlman is professor of French literature at Boston University. A translator
of Lacan, he is the author, most recently, of Legacies: Of Anti-Semitism in France.
This book was first published in Paris under the title La bataille de cent ans: Histoire de
la psychanalyse en France, 2. © Editions du Seuil, octobre 1986.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
Free Association Books, London
© 1990 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 1990
Printed in the United States of America
99 98 97 96 95 94 93 92 91 90 5 4 3 2 1
©The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roudinesco, Elisabeth, 1944—
[Bataille de cent ans. 2. 1925-1985. English]
Jacques Lacan 8c Co. : a history of psychoanalysis in France,
1925-1985 / translated with a foreword by Jeffrey Mehlman.
p. cm.
Translation of : La bataille de cent ans. 2.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-226-72997-4
1. Psychoanalysis—France—History. 2. Lacan, Jacques, 1901-
I. Title. II. Title: Jacques Lacan and Co.
BF175.R67813 1990 89-78164
150.19'5'09—dc20 CIP
To the memory of Laurence Bataille

Concealed in the submission to the rules of a task and the regu­
larity of objectively imposed exigencies there is a possibility for an
eroticization of history—a quickening and quickened passion, I might
almost say, love itself.
—Michel de Certeau

Contents
Translator’s Foreword xi
Preface to the American Edition xvii
Preface to the French Edition xix
Acknowledgments xxi
part one The New Sensibility
1. Surrealism in the Service of Psychoanalysis 3
I Day and Night 3
II Suicide, Sex, and the Criminal Woman 12
III Andre Breton between Freud and Hegel 21
2. Marxism, Psychoanalysis, Psychology 35
I Pavlovianism and Freudo-Marxism 35
II Georges Politzer and Henri Wallon as Readers of
Freud 56
3. Writers, Literati, Dream-Devourers 72
I Verdurin and Guermantes 72
II Love Letters 80
III Andre Gide and La Nouvelle Revue franqaise 84
IV Pierre Jean Jouve and the Ladies’ Chamber 94
4. Jacques Lacan: A Novel of His Youth 101
I From Alfred to Gaetan 101
II Aimee or Rudolph 109
III Christine and Lea 124
IV Henri, Sigmund 129
V Alexandre 134
VI Family Chains 142
part two Cold Wars, Hot Wars
5. The Situation of Psychoanalysis at Midcentury 151
I Chronicle of the Brown Years 151
II From East to West 164
III Two New Masters: Sacha Nacht and Daniel
Lagache 205
6. The Great Divide 223
I Disagreements 223
II Rome in September: A Baroque Overture 253
III Maurice Bouvet or French Neo-Freudianism 268
IX
X CONTENTS
7. Life and Death of the Societe Franchise de Psychanalyse 277
I Our Finest Years 277
II The Birth of Lacanianism 294
III An Autumn in Bonneval 307
IV The Grand Maneuver 318
V Guerrilla War and “Excommunication” 359
part three Freudian France in Full Array
8. The Ecole Freudienne de Paris: The Reconquest 373
I The New French Intellectual Landscape 373
II Intermezzo 390
III Recourse to Formal Logic 398
IV Jacques Lacan, Himself . . . 407
V Had Versailles Been Told Me 417
VI La Passe: A Reverse Split 443
VII Anonymity and the Fourth Group 461
9. Sunset Boulevard: The Splendors and Miseries of Protest 478
I The Great Decline of Dynamic Psychiatry 478
II Women Problems 506
III Red Front and Years of Embers 526
10. Kingdoms Asunder 547
I Psychoanalysis in the University 547
II The Societe Psychanalytique de Paris or Advanced
Bureaucracy 580
III The Association Psychanalytique de France: The
Identification of a Group 616
11. The Ecole Freudienne de Paris: The Collapse 633
I Last Song 633
II Dissolution 647
Epilogue 679
A Hundred Years of Psychoanalysis: An Inventory 683
Appendixes 701
Abbreviations 713
Notes 715
Index 759