On the 19th, you shared with me excerpts from a letter sent to you by Mr Denis. You added that you would appreciate my taking into account this correction. I abided by your request right away by publishing the entire correction sent by Mr Denis (this same Mr Denis who refuses me the right of reply) and answering his contentions point by point, in the hope of bringing to an end this affair which you qualified as not-too-glorious.

In your response of yesterday evening you told me that you relinquish the role of go-between and you postpone for a later date the meeting you wished to have with me. I e-mailed to you : Ç As you will È. We could have called it a day. Yet, far from recognising my having fully considered Mr Denis' correction, you now blame me for lacking courtesy.

I am highly sensitive to such a reproach originating in a man like Mr de Mijolla, who is always careful of his own courtesy. I do not think I deserve his reproach. I might get tired of receiving lessons in courtesy that would end by being not so courteous in the long run.

Allow me, dear Mr de Mijolla, to argue with you. By asking me to take into account Mr Denis' correction you exit yourself from the realm of private correspondence, since you wanted my public expression to reflect the content of what you were communicating to me. I wished to give you satisfaction, most complete satisfaction, by acquainting the public with Mr Denis' rectifying statements. To do so I must account for the means whereby those statements came to my knowledge, for Mr Denis did not address them to me personally, and I published them, not by my own authority, but according to your request. I was compliant towards you to the point of addressing Mr Denis with courtesy even though he made no amendment.

I am willing to publish the mail exchange between us , and make the public a judge of your behaviour and mine.I may have misunderstood you. Perhaps you did not express yourself with the accuracy required in difficult affairs. From this I conclude that you are perhaps right in removing yourself from this one. Writing history and making history are two different things. I believe I said this to you long ago when I justified my declining your invitations to join the AIHP. I make history, you write it. Each one to his destiny. Everything is fine. Cordially, JAM.

JAM WRITES TO MR. DENIS
Paris, Sept. 23 (LPA) Ð J.A. Miller had the following letter delivered door-to-door to Mr Denis, director of the Revue francaise de Psychanalyse, member of the SPP : Ç Sir, you will find herein the text, entirely published, of the correction that Mr de Mijolla forwarded to me on your behalf. He asked me to take it into account. I take it into account. In the attached bulletin you will also find the text of the detailed response I give to you, in peaceful terms.

It is evident to me that you were not aware of legislation concerning the right of reply, which is quite different from that dealing with slander. You may exert your right of reply even if you are praised. By the very fact that a text in a periodical publication points at you, even without naming you, you may claim for the insertion of your reply.

According to my own words, I do not blame a psychoanalyst colleague for ignoring a point of law. We are not jurists. Now that you are informed, the whole affair could be terminated if you are willing to include my letter in the next issue of the RFP. That would make me happy. If you have other suggestions for me, I shall consider them favourably, provided that some equivalent to the right of reply appears in the next coming issue but not any later.

Nonetheless, notwithstanding you now being informed, if you still deem it convenient not to change your mind, I might find myself obliged, regrettably, to raise the pitch in my public Letters. I do not wish that, but I am, like you undoubtedly, a man of duty. Please acknowledge my best regards. Jacques-Alain Miller".

JAM WRITES TO MR. COURNUT
Paris, Sept. 23 (LPA) Ð On September 21 JAM faxed the following letter to Mr Cournut, President of the SPP : Ç 20 :15. Dear Mr Cournut, thank you for your words which arrived this morning. You have understood that all I want is to have (in due time, of course) the best possible relationship with the SPP. In Argentina I am on good terms with APdeBA, whose President's welcome was formulated : "JAM is at home here", with APA where I have close friends, with the IPA Society in Cordoba (second most important city in the country) where I was hosted for a clinical discussion in public. The Freudian Field likewise invites its colleagues across the street without the slightest idea of any eventual fusion of groups (we are not crazy).

Paul Denis made a mistake. It is human. To persevere in it, yes, that would be devilish. I let him know that I am communicating with you. Likewise to Mr de Mijolla, who got his fingers stuck in the door. Don't you think it is about time to put this to an end, this evening or tomorrow morning? I shall be writing my third Letter this coming weekend.

I will phone you tomorrow morning. I am ready to meet you and Mr Denis tomorrow evening and to discuss together with you the terms of an announcement closing the issue.

Your second Presidency could be historical and signal the re-establishment of an atmosphere of cordiality among analysts, such as has been absent from Paris for half a century. That is what I wish. That is what my old friend Horacio wishes. I believe I am right in saying that Daniel Widlocher wishes so too, as well as Eric Laurent. And yourself.

I sent my Letters to Andre Green. The second one reminded him of our meeting in Barcelona. He wrote to me that he was sensitive to this dedication.

There is a "kairos". The opportunity is almost bald. Let us know how to seize its only hair. I expect to hear from you soon. JAM."

RIGHT OF REPLY FOR MR. DENIS
Paris, Sept. 23 (LPA) Ð In terms of right of reply, we publish Mr Denis' letter, sent on Sunday Sept. 23 at 12:55 to Mr Favereau of Liberation, to Mr de Mijolla, and to J.A. Miller. The letter is foredated Sept. 21. The text says: "Sir, I have received your letter dated Sept. 21, 2001, and the September 20 issue of the Bulletin of the Lacanian Press Agency appended to it, in which you make public and comment upon excerpts of private correspondence between Mr de Mijolla and myself, without the authorisation of either one. I shall not elaborate on what you say therein except for this: I have no intention whatsoever to blame anything on Mr Favereau, to whom I am thankful for the honesty of his article on the Sept. 7 issue of Liberation, and to whom I attribute no damage. The expression : "What do you expect me to say? Perhaps he simply "blew a fuse" was not aimed at transcribing my words literally but at translating very accurately the interrogative state in which the language excesses of your "First letter to the enlightened public" had plunged me and could plunge every reader. A more academic expression would have changed nothing essentially. As to the rest, I will leave to the "jury of public opinion" in which the prosecutor that you are is authorised, the task of judging. Please acknowledge, Sir, my distinguished feelings. Paul Denis. Copy to Mr Eric Laurent."

JAM RESIGNS
Paris, Sept. 23 (LPA) Ð On Sunday Sept. 23 at 16:00, JAM faxed Mr Cournut, President of the SPP, the following message : Ç Dear Jean Cournut, I resign from trying to obtain from the Director of the Revue francaise de psychanalyse a right of reply to the article by Mr Diatkine published in the June issue. This resignation is unconditional and final. With my best feelings, Jacques-Alain Miller. È

INTERVIEW WITH JAM
Paris, Sept. 23 (LPA) Ð This Sunday at 20 :15 Mr Miller declared the following to Ms de Saint-Amour, correspondent of our Agency : Ç Last Friday, Sept. 21, I did everything to offer Mr Denis aN honourable way out. The information I received thereafter convinced me that he will not use it. Therefore, I close this opening, and I quote on my account the saying of the peasant quoted by Lacan in the Ecrits : Ç Nothing is impossible for man, but what he cannot do he drops È.

. As long as Mr Denis rules on the Revue francaise de psychanalyse, we must comply with the fact that it will not be a Ç place of debate È but rather the sacred place where Ç we come to worship the Eternal, Mr Denis." He will not insert in his incorruptible object the twenty lines that would have stained it (Lady Macbeth's stain). Any enlightened person will have understood, following the ALP bulletin of last Thursday, that Mr Denis was ignorant of the nature of the right of reply. With his arrogance and his ignorance, he will have led me to awaken the Freudian France. The theories that Lacan disputed believed that the psychoanalytic cure puts the subject on a par with common reality. This conception of analysis shows its failure here. Mr Denis lives in a world of his own. Weird. This story will be longtime told among the people. It will provide food for thought. Bye, bye, Denis and Diatkine! You have brought upon yourselves the attention of Lacan's students. "He was in his tomb and stared at Cain". Emphasis is not the enemy of poetry. Today I decided to leave both D's behind me in order to devote my letters to bring about the existence of the necessary revolt of the intellectuals, "the logical revolts", to use the terms of Rimbaud and his comrades of that time against generalised gagging."

COLLOQUIA ON JACQUES LACAN.
Paris, Sept. 24 (LPA) Ð The association of Forums of the Lacanian Field announces that it has just organised a colloquium at Cerisy on "Lacan in the century". In addition to those responsible for this young Lacanian association, other participants included Jean Bollack; Hubert Damisch; Charles Mela and Louis Soler, members of the Ecole de la Cause Freudienne; and two other persons known to and appreciated by Jacques Lacan: Jean Oury, an historical pillar of institutional psychotherapy, and the painter Francois Rouan.

The Lacanian Journal Essaim, animated by Eric Porge, organises an encounter on Oct. 6 at Sainte-Anne Hospital. Participants include: Jacques Le Rider, Rene Major, Charles Melman, Jacques-Alain Miller, and Francois Wahl. The registration form should be submitted with no delay to Ms Brigitte Lemerer, 90, rue Georges Lardennois, 75019, Paris, with a cheque for 250 FF (buffet included) to the order of ATP.

Translated by Liliana Mauas-Singer

Edited by Susana Tillet