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{{Jacques LacanJL}}

[[Jacques Lacan|Jacques-Marie Émile Lacan]] ([[Jacques Lacan:Chronology#1901|13 April 1901]] – [[Jacques Lacan:Chronology#1981|9 September 1981]]) was a [[French ]] [[psychoanalyst ]] and [[psychiatrist ]] who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis, [[philosophy]], and [[literary ]] [[theory]]. Giving yearly [[seminars ]] in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's intellectuals in the 1960s and the 1970s, especially the post-[[structuralist ]] [[philosophers]]. His interdisciplinary [[work ]] is [[Freudian]], featuring the [[unconscious]], the [[castration ]] [[complex]], the ego, [[identification]], and [[language ]] as [[subjective ]] [[perception]]. His [[ideas ]] have had a significant impact on [[critical theory]], [[literary theory]], twentieth-century French philosophy, [[sociology]], [[feminist ]] theory and [[clinical ]] psychoanalysis.

:13 April, Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan is [[born ]] in Paris, to a [[family ]] of solid [[Catholic ]] [[tradition]]. He is educated at the collège Stanislas, a Jesuit school. After his ''baccalauréat'' he studies [[medicine ]] and later [[psychiatry]].

: Starts clinical [[training]], works at [[Sainte-Anne's hospital]]. A year later he works in the Special Infirmary Service where [[Clérambault ]] had a [[practice]].

:Awarded doctorate for his [[thesis]], ''[[De la psychose paranoïaque dans ses rapports avec la personnalité]]''.

:The richness of his thesis, especially the [[analysis ]] of the [[case ]] of [[Aimée]], makes him famous with the [[Surrealist]]s. BEtween this year and 1939 he takes [[Kojève]]'s course at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes [[Etudes]], an "Introduction to the [[reading ]] of [[Hegel]]."

:He [[marries ]] [[Marie-Louise ]] Blondon, [[mother ]] of [[Caroline]], [[Thibaut ]] and [[Sibylle]]. While in analysis with Rudolph [[Loewenstein]], Lacan becomes a member of the ''[[[Société Psychanalytique de Paris|Société psychanalytique de Paris]]]]'' ([[Société psychanalytique de Paris|SPP]]).

:Works at Val-de-Grâce, the military hospital in Paris. During the [[German ]] Occupation, he does not take part in any [[official ]] [[activity]].

:In 1946, the [[SPP]] resumes its activities and Lacan, with Nacht and Lagache, takes charge of training [[analyses ]] and supervisory [[control ]] and plays an important [[theoretical ]] and institutional [[role]].

:In January Lacan is elected President of the [[SPP]]. Six months later he resigns to join the ''[[Société Française de Psychanalyse]]'' ([[SFP]]) with D. Lagache, F. Dolto, J. Favez-Boutonier among [[others]]. In Rome, Lacan delivers his report, "''[[Fonction et champ de la parole et du langage]]''". On 17 July he marries [[Sylvia ]] Maklès, mother of [[Judith]]. That autumn Lacan starts his [[seminar]]s at the [[Hôspital Sainte-Anne]].

:The first ten [[seminar]]s elaborate fundamental notions [[about ]] [[psychoanalytic ]] [[technique]], the essential [[concepts ]] of [[psychoanalysis]], and its [[ethics]]. During this period Lacan writes, on the basis of his seminars, conferences and addresses in colloquia, the major [[texts ]] that are found in ''[[Ecrits]]'' in 1966.

:Celebrities are attracted to his seminars ([[Jean Hyppolite]]'s analysis of [[Freud]]'s article on ''DénégationDé[[négation]]'', given during the first seminar, is a well-known example). [[Alexandre Koyré]], Claude Lévi-[[Strauss]], Maurice [[Merleau-Ponty]], and ethnologist Marcel Griaule, Emile Benveniste among others attend his courses.

:[[SFP]] members [[want ]] to be recognized by the [[International Psycho-Analytical Association]] ([[IPA]]). The [[IPA]] issues an ultimatum: Lacan's [[name ]] must be crossed off the [[list ]] of didacticians.

:Lacanians [[form ]] a Study Group on Psychoanalysis organized by Jean Clavreul, until Lacan official founds the ''[[Ecole Française de Psychanalyse]]'', which soon becomes the ''[[Ecole Freudienne de Paris]]'' ([[EFP]]). With [[Lévi-Strauss ]] and [[Althusser]]'s support, he is appointed lecturer at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes.

:In January Lacan begins his new seminar on "[[The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis]]" at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. His audience is made up of [[analysts ]] and young students in philosophy at the ENS, notably [[Jacques-Alain Miller]].

:Lacan presents the ''[[Acte ]] de Fondation'' of the [[EFP]]; its novelty lies in the procedure of ''[[passe]]''. The ''[[passe]]'' consists of testifying, in front of two ''passeurs'', to one's [[experience ]] as an analysand and especially to the crucial [[moment ]] of passage from the [[position ]] of [[analysand]] to that of [[analyst]]. The ''passeurs'' are chosen by their [[analyst]]s (generally analysts of the EFP) and should be at the same [[stage ]] in their [[analytic ]] experience as the ''passant''. They listen to him and then, in turn, they testify to what they have heard in front of a committee for approval composed of the director, Lacan, and of some AE, ''[[analyste ]] de l'école'' (analyst of the school). This committee's function is to select the analysts of the School and to elaborate, after the selecting [[process]], a 'work of [[doctrine]]'.

:The issue of the ''passe'' keeps invading the EFP's [[life]]. "''Le quatrième groupe''" is formed around those who resign from the EFP disputing over Lacan's methods for the analysts' training and accreditation. Lacan takes a stand in the crisis of the [[university ]] that follows May [[1968]]: "If psychoanalysis cannot be articulated as a [[knowledge ]] and taught as such, it has no [[place ]] in the university, which deals only with knowledge." The ENS director finds a pretext for telling Lacan that he is no longer welcome at the ENS at the beginning of the academic year. Moreover, the journal ''Cahiers pour l'[[Analyse]]'' has to cease publication, but [[Vincennes ]] appears as an alternative. Michel [[Foucault ]] asks Lacan to create and direct the Department of Psychoanlaysis at Vincennes. Thanks to Lévi-Strauss, Lacan moves his seminars to the law school of the Panthéon.

:On 9 January, Lacan announces the [[dissolution ]] of the EFP and asks those who [[wish ]] to continue [[working ]] with him to [[state ]] their intentions in [[writing]]. He receives over one thousand letters within a week. On 21 February, Lacan announces the founding of the school ''[[La Cause freudienne]]'', later renamed the ''[[Ecole de la Cause freudienne]]''.

:[[Lacan]] studies medicine and [[psychiatry]] and completes his [[De la psychose paranoiaque dans ses rapports avec la personalité|doctoral thesis]] on [[paranoia|paranoid]] [[psychosis]]. He presents a paper on the [[mirror stage]] - his first theoretical contribution to [[psychoanalysis]] - at a conference of the [[International Psycho-Analytical Association]] in [[Marienbad]].

:[[Lacan]] begins his first [[public ]] [[seminar]] (which he will continue to give annually until his [[death]]). Thereafter, he rises to become a renowned and controversial [[figure ]] in the international psychoanalytic [[community]].

| align="[[left]]" style="padding: 0.2em 0.2em 0.2em 0.5em; margin: 0.5em 0 1em 0;" | [[Lacan]] studies medicine and [[psychiatry]] and completes his [[De la psychose paranoiaque dans ses rapports avec la personalité|doctoral thesis]] on [[paranoia|paranoid]] [[psychosis]].

| align="left" style="padding: 0.2em 0.2em 0.2em 0.5em; margin: 0.5em 0 1em 0;" | [[Lacan]] leaves the [[SFP]] (after his "[[expulsion]]" from the [[IPA]]) and founds his own [[school]], the ''[[École Freudienne de Paris]]'' ([[EFP]]).

<blockquote>''[[Jacques Lacan:Bibliography|Click here]] for a more [[complete ]] [[bibliography ]] of [[Jacques Lacan]]'s [[Jacques Lacan:Bibliography|work]].''</blockquote>

[[Lacan]]'s most important theoretical contributions to [[psychoanalysis]] were presented in his [[seminar]]s. In 1966, a selection of [[Lacan]]'s most important papers are published under the title ''[[Écrits]]''; in 2006 a complete edition of these works was published in [[English]].