1st Edition
The “Here and Now” of French Psychoanalysis Conversations with Contemporary Psychoanalysts
The “Here and Now” of French Psychoanalysis provides an overview of the living psychoanalytic landscape in France through the voice of experienced psychoanalysts who continue and transform Freud, Lacan and others’ legacy in their publications and clinical practice.
Rachel Boué-Widawsky interviews a wide range of practitioners, underscoring the specificities of French psychoanalysis and exploring how the French psychoanalytic community has responded theoretically and clinically to the global crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, racial and gender issues. Mimicking the process of psychoanalytic dialogue, the interview format allows for a lively and engaging discussion of each practitioner’s theoretical background and their clinical approach. Boué-Widawsky includes leading individuals in the field as well as representatives of key institutions including La Maison de Solenn and the Centre Jean-Favreau.
The “Here and Now” of French Psychoanalysis presents an accessible introduction to this distinctive psychoanalytic landscape. It will be essential reading for psychoanalysts in practice and in training and for academics and students of psychoanalytic studies.
Notes on contributors
Notes on the editor
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1 – Conversation with Marilia Aisenstein
Chapter 2 – Conversation with Christine Anzieu-Premmereur
Chapter 3 – Conversation with Danièle Brun
Chapter 4 – Conversation with Catherine Chabert
Chapter 5 – Conversation with Bernard Chervet
Chapter 6 – Conversation with Paul Denis
Chapter 7 – Conversation with Nicolas Evzonas
Chapter 8 – Conversation with Alain Gibeault
Chapter 9 – Conversation with René Kaës
Chapter 10 – Conversation with Laurence Kahn
Chapter 11 – Conversation with Vassilis Kapsambelis
Chapter 12 – Conversation with Julia Kristeva
Chapter 13 – Conversation with Laurie Laufer
Chapter 14 – Conversation with Clotilde Leguil
Chapter 15 – Conversation with Sophie Mendelsohn
Chapter 16 – Conversation with Dominique Scarfone
Chapter 17 – Conversation with Alain Vanier
Biography
Rachel Boué-Widawsky, PhD, is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York, on the faculty of IPTAR (Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research) She is editor of the Foreign Books Reviews of JAPA (Journal of American Psychoanalytic Association). She is also the author of numerous articles on French psychoanalysis and of several books in French on literary criticism.
“In this volume we get to hear the response of a diverse group of French and francophone psychoanalysts to current societal issues; a very interesting addition to this body of work.” - Dana Birksted-Breen L.ès L. PhD; Distinguished Fellow and Training Psychoanalyst of the BPAS
The depth and complexity of contemporary French psychoanalytic thinking has often presented challenges to anglophone readers, because of insufficient translation and the often times demanding poetics of the French intellectual literary style. Here is an accessible, thought provoking and deeply personal window into the hearts and minds of leading figures in contemporary French analysis, one that will offer readers of all levels of experience an invaluable treasure chest of personal, historical, and clinical psychoanalytic resources that cannot help but entice, engage and expand one’s thinking and understanding about oneself and one’s clinical practice. To read this book is to encounter, challenge and enlarge one’s assumptions and understandings about one’s knowledge of psychoanalysis in the most imaginative and creative ways possible. It is a vital experience that should not be missed and for which readers will long be grateful.” - Howard B. Levine, Training-Analyst, Member of PINE, NYU Post-Doc, author, Affect, Representation and Language: Between the Silence and the Cry; editor, The Freudian Matrix of Andre Green: Towards a Psychoanalysis for the Twenty-First Century and On The Destruction and Death Drives by Andre Green.
“The "Here and Now" of French Psychoanalysis, Conversations with Contemporary French Psychoanalysts is an exciting book, a compilation of conversations with contemporary French psychoanalysts which brings to life the central themes and controversies in French psychoanalysis today. Dr. Boué-Widawsky’s thoughtful interviews make French psychoanalysis accessible to the Anglophone reader. Although it would be possible to use the book as a reference to learn about a specific author, my sense is that readers will be stimulated, as I was, to read it through and to engage with the lively and erudite conversations that it presents. The book is a pleasure to read as well as a useful introduction to French psychoanalysis.” - Lucy LaFarge, M.D.; Editor in Chief, The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Training Analyst at Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Cornell Medical College.
“Separated more by failures of translation than differences in language per se, French and Anglo-American psychoanalytic histories have evolved relatively independent of each other. Rachel Boué-Widawsky’s volume bridges this divide through a series of structured interviews with leading contemporary French psychoanalysts; a method that reveals the diversity of each personal journey as well as the foci and themes that distinguish French psychoanalysis as a distinct theoretical and clinical perspective. Her excellent introduction not only sets the scene for the interviews that follow but also provides a valuable resource for scholars and clinicians who wish to contrast, compare, and perhaps incorporate French psychoanalytic thinking into their own work.” - Bonnie E. Litowitz, PhD; Faculty, Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute; Japa Editor-in-Chief, Emerita; co-editor (with G. Gabbard and P. Williams), The Textbook of Psychoanalysis
