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).