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  The question of the [[responsibility ]] of the criminal and thus of [[punishment ]] came up at the Liberation, but the dimensions of the question were given by the Nuremberg trials with the [[notion ]] of "crime against mankind." The report established for the Xlllth Conference des Psychanalystes de [[Langue ]] Fran~aise was deliberately situated in this post-war context. "If [[psychoanalysis ]] un-realizes I irrealisel the crime, it does not dehumanize the criminal"; this is the central [[thesis]]. Recalling some famous cases (Mrs Lefebvre, [[Aimee ]] (2), the Papin sisters (4), Mr Verdoux), the [[text ]] denies ir�responsibility irresponsibility both in cases of [[organic ]] [[madness ]] or "criminal [[instincts]]" and in cases where the crime is a mere response to a [[social ]] context. The signifkant portion devoted to [[English ]] experimentations in prisons-one remembers La [[Psychiatric ]] allglaise (IS)-elaborates on the [[psychoanalyst]]'s mission: to re�store restore the [[subject ]] to himself and to his [[truth ]] by "nonaction" l"le nOIl-agir"j; to restore his [[links ]] to the [[community ]] without replacing justice; to stress that the rest belongs to social values, beliefs, and institutions.  The [[ideal ]] of the ego as opposed to the [[superego]], the [[mirror ]] [[stage]], the misadventures of Oedipalism, are all inscribed in a broader conception of malliwtioll [homillisation]. The text begins with a quote from Saint [[Paul]], "It is the law that makes sin," and stresses its absolute truth for the foundations of [[society]]. This [[concept ]] is opposed to [[Freud]]'s thesis concerning the [[primal ]] [[horde ]] in which it is the [[horror ]] of crime that creates the law. [[Socrates ]] is used to [[recall ]] the obedience to the laws, although unjust, of the city. As for Dos�toievskyDostoievsky's [[sentence]], "God is [[dead]], then everything is allowed," it is turned upside down into "God is dead, [[nothing ]] is allowed any more" The [[Lacanian ]] [[system ]] of values is very much [[present ]] in this text, including the tone of the response to the participants. 20[[Category:1950]] [[Category:Lacan/Bibliography]][[Category:Works by Jacques Lacan]][[Category:Categorize]]