Cartel
cartel (cartel) The cartel is the, basic working unit on which Lacan based
hiS SCHOOL Of psychoanalysis, the Ecole Freudienne de Psychanalyse (EFP),
and most Lacanian associations continue to organise work in cartels today.
The cartel is essentially a study group consisting of three to five people
(though Lacan considers four the optimum number), plus a supervisor (known
as a 'plus-one'; Fr. plus-un) who moderates the group's work. A cartel is
created when a group of people decide to work together on a particular aspect
of psychoanalytic theory which is of interest to them, and it is then registered
in the school's list of cartels. Although participation in cartels plays an
important part in the training ( formation) of Lacanian analysts, membership
of cartels is not restricted to members of the school. Indeed, Lacan welcomed
the exchange of ideas between analysts and those from other disciplines, and
saw the cartel as one structure which would serve to encourage this exchange.
By organising research work around a small-scale unit like the cartel, Lacan
hoped to avoid the effects of massification which he regarded as partly to
blame for the sterility of the International Psycho-Analytical Association
(IPA).