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AN INQUIRY BY ERIC FAVEREAU
Paris, 7 Sept., (LPA)- "Liberation" published this
morning a searching
inquiry and analysis by Eric Favereau regarding the "terrible anger of
Lacan's son-in-law". Whilst expecting a flare up of the gut wars of the
Lacanian galaxy, one was surprised, he said, to be witnessing a head on
clash between the two historical analytical associations, the Societe
psychanalytique de Paris (SPP) and the Ecole de la Cause freudienne
(ECF). Mr. Denis, questioned by the journalist, proffered the hypothesis
that JAM could have blown a fuse; he also considered at the same time
that the objective of the latter was "to get the Lacanian movement into
the promised land of the International Association". Mr. Diatkine was
worried that he would waste his money and insisted that the Revue
francaise de psychanalyse was a scientific journal and not a place for
argument nor for a right of reply. Madam Roudinesco made the judgement
that it was a conflict belonging to "another time". As for Mr. Miller,
he "exploded", Mr. Favereau said, but intends to put his anger to
good
use: "I am going to change the landscape of forces in the French and
international psychoanalytical milieu. I am going to regain a part of
the media terrain that I left ten years ago."
THE DEPOLLUTION BRIGADE
Paris, 7 Sept. (LPA)- This morning during Pierre Assouline's
broadcast
on France-Culture, "First Edition", J.A. Miller challenged
psychoanalysts who oppose the Lacanian orientation, proposing that they
debate publicly with him. He did not want to say whom he was thinking of
as interlocuters: "Let them choose their own", he replied. Invited
to
reply to the proposals attributed to Madam Roudinesco in the article in
"Liberation", he remarked: "he was also fighting for Elisabeth."
In the
course of the broadcast he admitted to having interviewed, whilst still
a pupil at the "Lycee", Jean Cocteau and Eric Rohmer, to having had
for
a long time in his room the portrait of Maximilien Robespierre whilst
all along appreciating Baronesse Orczy's"The Adventures of Mouron rouge"
and recognising himself in the name of the street theatre group "The
Depollution Brigade". He insisted that Mr. Assouline invite for his next
broadcast messers Denis and Diatkine: they will commit self-destruction
in public, he predicted.
LACANIAN MAOIST?
Paris, 7 Sept. (LPA)- "Le Monde" published in the middle
of its first
page an incisive article of Jean Birnbaum entitled "Lacanian fury twenty
years after the death of the psychoanalyst", stressing the proletarian
left youth of Lacan's son-in-law, presenting the former 68'er like a
Lacanian in the emphatic style of "sans culotte". He points out the
"agit-prop" source of inspiration of JAM's first "Letter",
"halif
pamphlet-half samizdat.
IN LATIN AMERICA
Buenos Aires, 7 Sept. (LPA)- Mr. Ricardo Seldes, Director of
EOL, School
of the Lacanian Orientation, based in Buenos Aires, made known to the
ALP that "the directorate of the School will translate Jacques-Alain
Miller's "Letters" which will be distributed in the best bookshops
in
Hispanophone America." EOL founded in January 1992 is the most important
Lacanian association in Argentina; it participated alongside the APA and
the AP of BA, the two big IPA Societies of Buenos Aires, in the Jacques
Lacan Colloquium held in that city last April on the occasion of the
centenary of the psychoanalyst's birth.
TALK WITH JACQUES-ALAIN MILLER
Paris, 7 Sept. (LPA)- At the end of the day on 7 Sept. Mr. Jacques-Alain
Miller accepted to give an interview to our correspondent, Ghislaine de
Saint-Amour. Firstly, she asked him about his choice of Cassegrain to
engrave his famour visiting card, a choice which also captured the
attention of Mr. Pierre Assouline as well as Mr. Favereau. J. A. Miller
replied to her: "Wanting to challenge Mr. Denis to a duel in engaging in
a campaign for opinion that would mark my exit from the desert in which
I gladly confined myself, not wanting to skimp myself, I addressed myelf
to the engraver on the rue Saint-Honore who has the best reputation in
Paris. The charming saleswoman, Ms.Celine, allowed me to admire the
visiting cards of John Galliano and of various embassies. Subsequently,
I learned from my father that Dominique Cassegrain, the founder of the
company, was one of his old acquaintances, the two of them having been
part of the entourage of the painter Gen-Paul, and had collaborated in
the edition of the book that Pierre Davaine dedicated to him in 1974,
prefaced by Dr. Jean Miller."
To the question of knowing exactly what was the aim of the media
offensive that he unleashed, J. A. Miller replied: "This morning I would
have said the present team that leads the SPP because it is taking
unacceptable liberties with the law and with simple courtesy. I can no
longer say, having found in my mail this evening the first letter that I
have ever received in my life on the beautiful, headed paper of the
Psychoanalytic Society of Paris. It was a note from its President, Jean
Cournut, whom I have known for a very long time to be a polite man; he
followed at one time Lacan's patient presentations. Without naming him,
I was surprised in my "First Letter to enlightened opinion" that he
did
not even acknowledge receipt of the post sent to him on 9 July with a
copy of my correspondance with Messers
Denis and Diatkine. Oh well, already done. In the letter dated 4 Sept.
and postd on the 6th Mr. Cournut thanked me cordially for my letter."
Given these conditions are you going to stop your campaign?
Acknowledgement of receipt no matter how polite is not an armistice,
even less a peace treaty as I would liked to have concluded with Jean
Cournut one day. On the contrary, if the President of the Paris Society
is in a position to abandon the ill-considered decision of his editorial
representative to deny the right to access to the press and to inform me
that his organ will publish, as it must,, my right to reply, then I
will consider the incident closed and forget everything, including the
hypothesis put forward this morning by Mr. Denis, according to which I
could well have (pete les plombs). I will be satisfied and devote the
"Letters" whose publication I announced to a consideration of
psychoanalytical history of the last half-century and of some
contemporary subjects.
Is it likely that the SPP will pull back?
What is likely in the matter is a modal category which doesn't
seem to
be operative. At the beginning of July I had not imagined for one second
that the organ of an Association recognised as a public utility, placed
under a very particular, public, administrative supervision of the
Council of State and of the home office which has the right to inspect
it and place it under tight, adminstrative supervision would commit such
an infraction concerning the right to information which could have led,
if I had not refused the possibility of litigation, to withdrawal of
its recognition as a public utility. This very morning I would not have
thought for one second that the President of the Paris Society, having
received my "First Letter", would acknowledge in such benevolent terms
receipt of a letter that I had addressed to him nearly two months ago.
I will also keep from making any prognostications about the decisions
that could have led the directorate of the Paris Society to take
considering the echo from our country's media that took account of the
protest I wished to make before public opinion. It's enough for me that
Mr. Cournut knows that it's within the scope of the SPP to extricate
itself by simply openly recognising the error, the all too human error
of Mr. Denis. I will immediately return my Pascalian sword to the
scabbard with which it is in love.
But all the same how do you explain that the Director of the
official
organ of the SPP is indicating to the presse that you have without a
doubt blown a fuse whilst the President of that very same Society
addresses you so cordially in a private letter?
I am not trying to explain it to myself. Mr. Denis has his style,
Mr.
Cournut has his. I appreciate the one whilst the other rebuffs me. It's
a little chaotic. Our colleagues from the Paris Society have not been
robotised, that I know of, each one preserving his or her own
personality. For instance, I received in the evening post the thanks of
a member of the Society for having addressed my Letter to him in which
he sees a highly entertaining "psychopathological document". Well,
then,
just to let him know that the little note he took care to send me has
amused me, not that I consider it as schizographia: I recognised in it
the rustic simplicity of the first edition Freudians who never hesitated
to dip into the clinic in order to give each the names of birds. At one
time one could print that without fear, and one did not deprive oneself
of the Lust of making wild interpretations, a jouissance that has always
been appreciated by connaisseurs. Today, these pratices have been
relegated to secret conversations and private correpondance. The public
is losing something there. Said to parody Cyrano, it's a little brief,
young man, you could have said a lot more. For instance, "he blew a
fuse." It's true that this retort had been preempted and brilliantly
exploited by Mr. Denis. But why not say "he doesn't know how to control
his aggressivity", or take your choice: obsessional rage, magalomania,
narcissistic personality, hysterical crisis, change of life, perverse or
borderline passage to the act, decompensation, even psychotic
triggering. "At the end of tbe dispatch have I an affect?" Not at
all:
at the end I shake your hand, my dear colleague, you are in my parish.
Have you received expressions of sympathy, encouragement?
The first one came from my friend Francois Regnault pointed out
to me
that Leibniz asked himself somewhere, without doubt, in the "New
Essays", perhaps in the "Monadology", "at what little wind
about
nothing in the blades of his mill the miller wakes up". The second from
Madam Lichtenstein who approved of my exit from the shadows. Before the
France-Culture broadcast I consulted yesterday my mentor, Catherine
Clement, who gave me the most precious information before duly preaching
to me. Finally, I had the pleasure of finding this morning on my return
from broadcasting house a word from Raphael Sorin who took the time in
the middle of the storm where he is with Houellebecq whom he is editing
to write me that he was happy to find me once again as in our already
distant youth "vibrant and terrible". We were in 6th form together
at
Louis-le-Grand in 1961-62. I also had the surprise to discover the 48th
issue of the internal Bulletin of the SPP, March 98, containing a right
of reply of nearly 200 lines obtained from Jean Cournut by Elisabeth
Roudinesco armed with article 13 of the law of 28 July 1881, following
the episode to which I had just alluded on the radio, namely the
undignified protests aroused by the publication of an article she wrote
in the Newletter of the IPA. Who sent me this letter, posted the
following day at 19 hours? There was nothing in the enevelope but
photocopies, but one could read on the back two initials: E.R. From my
colleagues of the Ecole de la Cause freudienne the messages are too
numerous to cite. The one from Philippe Lacadee, nevertheless, stands
out, psychoanalyst in Bordeaux, who sent me a text that I will take up
in one of my next "Letters": it's an extract from Pic de la Mirandole,
can't be more topical.
THE BOOK SHOPS ARE DEMONSTRATING
Paris, 8 Sept. (LPA)- A radio broadcast, the article of a morning
broadsheet, the first page of an evening broadsheet, word of mouth, have
stimulated the circulation of JAM's "First Letter". Tschann, boulevard
Montparnasse, the only Parisian bookshop to sell it, had to restock
urgently. Three other bookshops demonstrated to have supplies which will
be delivered today by the author in person; they are l'Arbre a lettres,
bouelvard du Temple, l'Escalier, rue Monsieur de Prince, and Lipsy, rue
des Ecoles. A bookshop in Lyon has been contacted. Mr. Gerard
Mallassagne, psychoanalyst in Nime, offered with the assistance of
friends to look after the circulation in the entire region of old Voie
Domitienne, which includes the cities of Agde, Ales, Avignon,
Banyuls-sur-mer, Beziers, Collioure, Cuxac d'Aude, Font-Romeu,
Montpellier, Nimes, Perpignan, Pignan, Remoulins, Sete (country of Paul
Valery and Georges Brassens) and Uzes.
COMMUNIQUE OF THE ECOLE DE LA CAUSE FREUDIENNE
Paris, 8 Sept. (LPA)- The Director of the Ecole de la Cause freudienne,
Mr. Pierre-Gilles Gueguen sent us the following declaration yesterday
evening: "I put the ECF fully behind the steps of Jacques-Alain Miller.
We agree with his analysis of the article which triggered the affair and
his indignation about the refusal of right of reply in contravention of
press law.
The ECF, School of the pass, responsible institution, careful
to the
highest degree on the recuitment of its members as well as their
training, in depth and permanent, cannot accept to be dismissed so
lightly in a professional periodical sold in bookshops, then to be
scandalously deprived by the Director of the periodical of the means to
express its point of view as a right in the law. These are ways of doing
things that do not have any place in a State based on the law, to be
banished once and for all from the psychoanalytical field. We have no
doubt been too patient. Those who defame us must know that henceforward
we shall litigate each time our professional honour is at stake, given
the faculty of reply in the conditions foreseen by current legislation.
One is jealous of the success of our School. One is trying to attack the
practice of the analysts who are members of the School and to ruin the
confidence which their patients give to them.
Since the foundation of our School in 1981, we make known the
results of
our work regularly and discuss clinical and theoretical advances
proposed by our members during our yearly study days, which are open to
the public attended by up to 2000 professionals, and in our
publications. For the last year we have been planning to say at our next
Study Days on 25 and 26 November at the Palais des congres, Porte
Maillot, "How one analyses in the Ecole de la Cause freudienne". The
Press will be invited. Especially what concerns the theory and practice
of psychoanalysis, the direction of the treatment, the use of
transference, the length of the sessions, etc, we accept to debate with
our colleagues whatever their orientation as long as they respect the
ethical code common to men of knowledge. .
We can only be delighted to see that the Revue francaise de psychanalyse
has suddenly become aware that the outlines of Lacanism are not
graspable fifty years after having placed it on the index. But we
acknowledge the slander of Mr. Diatkine under the fallacious pretext
that a "scientific revue" is not the "place for challenges"
who then
refuses a right to reply, his proposal, quoted in today's "Liberation".
He is speaking in the name of science. What do the scientists think?
Translated by Richard Klein
UQBAR-TRANSLATION
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