Company for a Renaissance
of Psychoanalysis in Europe
Each of us, in our own tongue and in our own town, have done a psychoanalysis; some of us have also become psychoanalysts. Without alienating our freedom, we have nevertheless submitted ourselves to very strict rules which originate, for the most part, with the beginnings of psychoanalysis.
These traditions, which occupy a place in culture, halfway between the arts and the sciences, delineate our discipline. A discipline that has always been influenced by the diversity of our languages, which have managed to, on the one hand, assimilate to psychoanalysis and on the other hand, to enrich it.
Even if the territory occupied by psychoanalysis does not correspond to a country as such, it is nevertheless practiced throughout Europe. Full legal harmonisation is currently inconceivable on our continent, but the Council of Europe actually aims at defending customary law.
We know that it is the respect of our rules and customs, and not a university training, that constitute the formation of a psychoanalyst. We also know that the analysis we have all undergone and benefited from is not to be found in the field of state regulated mental health practices, which represent a threat to our profession.