Ecole freudienne de Paris

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The École Freudienne de Paris (EFP) (English: Freudian School of Paris) was a French psychoanalytic institution founded in 1964 by the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Emerging from a schism within the French psychoanalytic establishment, the EFP aimed to restore the Freudian field through radical theoretical reformulations and a critique of dominant psychoanalytic orthodoxy, particularly as represented by the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA).

Described as "a vital—if conflict-ridden—institution until its dissolution in 1980"[1], the EFP was at the center of both Lacanian theory and the institutional upheavals that followed in the French psychoanalytic movement during the latter half of the 20th century.

Early History

Background: Schism in French Psychoanalysis

The formation of the EFP must be understood in the context of escalating tensions within French psychoanalysis during the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1953, a major conflict within the Société Psychanalytique de Paris (SPP) led to a split: "a group of senior figures, including but not led by Jacques Lacan, broke away to form the Société Française de Psychanalyse (SFP)"[2]. The SFP sought recognition from the IPA, the international body governing psychoanalytic training standards. However, this recognition process was obstructed for nearly a decade.

The central point of contention was Lacan’s practice of variable-length sessions. Unlike the standard "fifty-minute hour," Lacan introduced a technique where session lengths varied, sometimes lasting only a few minutes, based on his interpretation of the unconscious and transference dynamics. The IPA viewed this as a fundamental deviation from accepted training practice[3].

In 1963, after much negotiation, the IPA issued an ultimatum: Lacan had to be removed from the list of training analysts if the SFP was to be recognized. Faced with this condition, Lacan left the SFP. The organization soon dissolved. Half of its assets went to the newly formed Association Psychanalytique de France (APF)—which gained IPA recognition—while the other half went to Lacan’s soon-to-be-established École Freudienne de Paris[4].

Founding of the EFP

In June 1964, Lacan issued the "Founding Act" (Acte de fondation), establishing the École Freudienne de Paris. The document declared:

"A labor is to be accomplished—a labor which, in the field opened up by Freud, restores the cutting edge of his discovery... [and] denounces the deviations and compromises that blunt its program"[5]

The Act emphasized Lacan's aim to reclaim the Freudian field, challenging what he saw as the dogmatism and bureaucratic stagnation of the IPA. The EFP would promote psychoanalysis through a return to Freud, though mediated by Lacan’s structuralist and post-structuralist reinterpretations, particularly through the lenses of language, linguistics, and topology.

One of the EFP’s early foundational principles was that "a psychoanalyst is a trainer, for having conducted one or several analyses which proved to be of a didactic nature. Such empowerment is de facto"[6]. In this way, Lacan refused the IPA’s top-down accreditation procedures, asserting the primacy of subjective transformation over institutional validation.

Structure and Theoretical Orientation

The Cartel

A hallmark of the EFP was its cartel system, a small working group of three to five analysts and one "plus-one" (charged with maintaining focus and rigor). Cartels were not hierarchical and aimed to foster autonomous, collaborative study of a specific concept or problem, avoiding bureaucratic centralization[7].

The Pass Procedure

Perhaps the most controversial innovation of the EFP was the introduction of "the Pass" (la passe) in 1967, as a new way to determine whether an analysand had become an analyst. In contrast to traditional training metrics (supervision, number of analyses, hours), the Pass emphasized the subjective account of one's analytic transformation.

In the procedure, a candidate ("passant") would testify before a jury composed of "passeurs," narrating their analytic experience. These reports were evaluated to determine whether the subject had passed from analysand to analyst[8].

Lacan declared:

"The analyst historizes only from himself: a patent fact, even if he is confirmed in doing so by a hierarchy"[9].

This process symbolized the EFP’s commitment to ethical autonomy and self-transformation, but also fueled enduring controversy, internal discord, and factionalism.

Institutional Conflicts

Perrier’s Resignation

From its inception, the EFP was marked by internal struggles over authority, training, and ideological orthodoxy. In December 1965, prominent member François Perrier resigned from the EFP’s governing board. In a letter to Lacan, Perrier wrote:

"What we expect of you is serene authority... not reckless skirmishes... you always divide but never rule".[10]

Perrier’s resignation highlighted early tensions over Lacan’s leadership style and his ambivalent stance toward institutional structure.

The 1968 Split

In 1968, just one year after the formal adoption of the Pass procedure, Perrier, along with two former board members and around twenty other members, broke away from the EFP to form the Organisation psychanalytique de langue française (commonly referred to as the "Quatrième Groupe")[11].

These members criticized the opacity and arbitrariness of the Pass, and their departure intensified the internal fragmentation within Lacanian circles.

As psychoanalyst and historian Dany Nobus observed:

"The issue of the Pass continues to devastate the Lacanian community to this very day—more than two decades after Lacan dissolved his school".[12]

The inherent tension between subjective transformation and external validation led to what one commentator called "a Pirandello world of Right You Are (If You Think So)"[13].

Doctrinal Rigidity and Dissolution

By the 1970s, the EFP increasingly came to be dominated by a rigid Lacanian orthodoxy. According to one disillusioned member:

"The custom of closing debates or silencing objections with a quotation from a Lacan who had become the object of a personality cult was scarcely conducive to open debate".[14]

This growing dogmatism stifled internal discussion and exacerbated conflicts about authority and succession.

In January 1980, Lacan abruptly announced the dissolution of the EFP. In his "Letter of Dissolution", he stated:

"I am dissolving the École Freudienne de Paris so that it not be preserved by those who, having understood nothing, want to take charge of it"[15]

Lacan’s act was motivated by concerns about the degradation of his ideas under the weight of the institution he had created. Scholars Juliet Mitchell and Jacqueline Rose later remarked:

"A challenge to authority yet at the same time authoritarian... Lacan was trapped in the circles of this paradox".[16]

Aftermath and Legacy

Following the dissolution of the EFP, over 20 new psychoanalytic associations emerged[17]. These included:

  • La Cause Freudienne (founded by Lacan shortly after the EFP’s dissolution)
  • École de la Cause Freudienne (ECF) (founded in 1981, directed by Jacques-Alain Miller)
  • Organisation psychanalytique de langue française (OPLF)
  • Other independent Lacanian societies across Europe and Latin America

While short-lived, La Cause Freudienne continued to publish the Lettre mensuelle, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller and Gérard Pommier, carrying forward Lacan’s intellectual legacy. Its masthead quoted James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake:

"Here comes Everybody... seeker of the nest of evil in the bosom of a good word"[18]

The EFP remains central to the history of psychoanalysis, particularly in how it foregrounded questions of:

  • The relationship between the analyst and the institution
  • The ethics of psychoanalysis
  • The formation of the analyst
  • The transmission of psychoanalytic knowledge through non-hierarchical structures

As historian Élisabeth Roudinesco observed, the Lacanian movement—shaped by the EFP—was characterized by "perpetual dissidence, momentary adventure, and a kind of surrealist time"[19].

Conclusion

The École Freudienne de Paris was not merely an institutional experiment—it was a radical rethinking of psychoanalytic theory and practice. During its 16 years of existence, it transformed the landscape of French psychoanalysis, introduced the controversial Pass procedure, and catalyzed a movement that continues to provoke debate in psychoanalytic, philosophical, and literary circles.

Though it ultimately succumbed to the paradoxes of its own founding principles—challenging institutional authority while becoming institutionally authoritative—it set the stage for a global Lacanian psychoanalytic movement that remains vibrant to this day.

See also

References

  1. ↑ David Macey, "Introduction", in Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, Penguin, 1994, p. xiii.
  2. ↑ Macey, p. xii.
  3. ↑ Macey, p. xiii.
  4. ↑ Macey, p. xxxv.
  5. ↑ Jacques Lacan, "Founding Act," in Television, London, 1990, p. 97.
  6. ↑ Ibid., p. 100.
  7. ↑ Jacques-Alain Miller, "La Suture: Éléments de la logique du signifiant," Cahiers pour l’analyse, no. 1, 1966.
  8. ↑ Jacques Sédat, "École Freudienne de Paris," Psychoanalysis Encyclopedia.
  9. ↑ Lacan, "Preface" to The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, p. xl.
  10. ↑ Élisabeth Roudinesco, Jacques Lacan, Cambridge, 1997, p. 318.
  11. ↑ Jacques Sédat, Organisation psychanalytique de langue française.
  12. ↑ Dany Nobus and Malcolm Quinn, Knowing Nothing, Staying Stupid, 2005, p. 97.
  13. ↑ Jacqueline Rose, On Not Being Able to Sleep, London, 2003, p. 176.
  14. ↑ Macey, p. xxxiii.
  15. ↑ Jacques Lacan, "Letter of Dissolution," in Television, pp. 129–131.
  16. ↑ Juliet Mitchell and Jacqueline Rose, Feminine Sexuality, New York, 1982, p. vii.
  17. ↑ Jacques Sédat, "French Lacanian Movement," Psychoanalysis Encyclopedia.
  18. ↑ Quoted in Lettre mensuelle, École de la Cause Freudienne.
  19. ↑ Roudinesco, Jacques Lacan, p. 432.
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