How has psychoanalysis developed in France in the years since Lacan so
dramatically polarized the field?
In this book, Dana Birksted-Breen and Sara Flanders of the British
Psychoanalytical 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 Psychoanalytical 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 psychoanalysis', 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:
- the history of psychoanalysis in France
- the pioneers and their legacy
- the setting and the process of psychoanalysis
- phantasy and representation
- the body and the drives
- masculine and feminine sexuality
- psychosis.
An excellent introduction to French psychoanalytical debate, Reading
French Psychoanalysis sheds a complementary light on thinking that has
evolved differently 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.
