Présentation de l’EuroFédération de psychanalyse (EFP)
Lilia Mahjoub
Présidente de l’EuroFédération de Psychanalyse (EFP)
In the beginning
On September 21 1990, the European School of Psychoanalysis (l’École européenne de psychanalyse, EEP) was created to link together several groups in Europe, and beyond, referring to the Lacanian orientation.
From 1990 onward, the EEP thus spurred the creation of psychoanalytic schools in Europe, such as the Escuela lacaniana de psicoanálisis (ELP) in Spain (in 2000), the Scuola Lacaniana di Psicoanalisi (SLP) in Italy in 2002, and the New Lacanian School (NLS) in 2003, bringing together several European countries as well as other English-speaking and French-speaking countries.
In 2007, the EEP decided to transform itself into the European Federation of Psychoanalytic Schools (Fédération Européenne des Écoles de Psychanalyse, FEEP).
The ECF agreed to become a member.
In June 2010, following a meeting with Jacques-Alain Miller during the preparation of the Pipol 5 Congress in Brussels, it was decided that the name of the FEEP would be changed to “EuroFederation of Psychoanalysis,” thus reflecting its impact beyond the four Schools that are its members.
For the EuroFederation of Psychoanalysis, this transformation reflected a desire to be closer to European political bodies, to follow any actions concerning legislation that affects “mental health” as well as practices of speech, to observe the evolution of certain ideologies concerning the so-called “psy” field, and to promote the development of psychoanalysis.
From and with the EFP
This development is taking place, within the Schools concerned, as much at the level of the inner circle of psychoanalysis, whether in terms of its ethics, the training of psychoanalysts, analytical practice and its regular supervision, as at the level of the outer circle, in terms of psychoanalysis’ links with the outside world, i.e., the place of its discourse and its effects in society, particularly in the European countries brought together by the EFP. These two circles, inner and outer, are knotted according to a topology created by Lacan, and are called, respectively, psychoanalysis in intension[1] and psychoanalysis in extension
Since then, the EFP constitutes a permanent observatory of the place that psychoanalysis occupies in relation to the discourse of the master in the social field. We can cite here its Autism Observatory, which reports on related current events, whether texts published on the subject within the Schools or outside them, namely political initiatives, draft or pending legislation, associations that receive and treat autism, etc.
The link between the EFP and the WAP
It should be noted that the EFP has close ties with the World Association of Psychoanalysis (WAP), which recognizes and brings together seven Schools: the four Schools that are members of the EuroFederation of Psychoanalysis, as well as the three other Schools that are members of the Federación Americana de Psicoanálisis de la Orientación Lacaniana (FAPOL), created in 2012.
The functions at work in the Schools are thus coordinated with the WAP, particularly with regard to the training of psychoanalysts (the procedure of the pass).
Additionally, the EFP is involved in a new policy, decided and recommended by the presidency of the WAP, namely the new youth policy, which aims to include young people training in psychoanalysis within the activities of the Schools and to welcome their contributions both in terms of their epistemic events and their publications. The EFP welcomed this initiative and followed this recommendation by involving many young people in its main event, the PIPOL congress, which takes place every two years.
The pass and the EFP
The president of the EFP regularly participates in work on the procedure of the pass in the Schools, particularly at the ELP, SLP, and NLS. Three Schools have their own arrangements and procedures: the ECF (latest rules for the pass in May 2022), the ELP (latest rules for the pass in 2023), and the SLP (rules for the pass in 2024).
Since March 2024, the NLS has had its own regulations for the pass. These specify the role of the president of the EFP who, together with the AMP pass secretariat and the acting president of the NLS, chooses the composition of the ad hoc cartel constituted for each pass request, and, together with the president of the NLS, defines the conditions for the work of doctrine and teaching that will be carried out by each cartel having functioned this way.
The key reference for all Schools concerning the pass procedure is the Proposal of October 9, 1967, on the psychoanalyst of the School [3]
The European Psychoanalysis Congress, PIPOL[4]
The first European Psychoanalysis Congress (PIPOL 5) took place on July 2 and 3, 2011, at the SQUARE in Brussels. Here is the list of the eight congresses, with their titles, that have been held since 2011:
PIPOL 5: Does mental health exist?
PIPOL 6: After Oedipus: The diversity of psychoanalytic practice in Europe.
PIPOL 7: Victim!
PIPOL 8: A Non-standard clinical practice
PIPOL 9: The unconscious and the brain: Nothing in common.
PIPOL 10: Wanting a child? Desire for family and clinic of filiations
PIPOL 11: Clinic and critique of patriarchy.
PIPOL 12: Family and its discontents
These congresses welcome numerous participants from all over Europe. They are held with simultaneous translation into five languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Dutch. The work of these congresses is open as much to mutations in the social bond as to clinical elaboration, in light of psychoanalytic concepts. Thus, the desire of the Other cannot be limited solely to the field of psychoanalytic practice [5] but also concerns “the subjectivity of [the] time.»
Mental
The journal Mental was created in 1994 by Judith Miller and Jacques-Alain Miller. It has published 52 issues, which often take up the themes of the PIPOL congress, but above all collect texts from authors from the four corners of Europe, i.e., from the four Schools, resulting in a varied editorial palette that is representative of the European dimension of the EFP.
The EFP pays close attention to its editorial quality and its epistemic diffusion. The president of the EFP is the editor-in-chief.
The journal Mental is published in French, but Schools that use another language are free to publish texts in their own language, with the agreement of the journal and the authors concerned.
Website
The EuroFederation of Psychoanalysis has a website in the four languages of the EFP Schools. It contains founding texts, texts on the guarantee and the pass, a presentation of the EFP, sections such as Mental and Pipol with news from the blog and the agenda of the congress in preparation, archives of previous congresses, the Autism Observatory, and the archives of the mailing list formerly known as PIPOL News.
This site is currently being restructured.
Its address is: http://www.europsychoanalysis.eu/
Mailing list and its members
An electronic mailing list was created in April 2010 with a view to facilitating essential exchanges to strengthen ties between the Schools and, in turn, to fuel debate within the European dimension of this working community.
It is sent out in four languages: English, Spanish, French, and Italian.
This list has just been renewed and updated.
To subscribe, please complete the registration form in the Newsletter Subscription section.
Translated from French by Anthony Stavrianakis
[1] Jacques Lacan, « Proposition du 9 octobre 1967 », Autres écrits, Paris, Seuil, 2001, p. 250. 250.
[2] Ibid. p.256 256.
[3] Ibid., pp. 243-259.
[4] PIPOL : Programme International de recherches sur la Psychanalyse appliquée d’Orientation lacanienne
[5] Cf. Jacques Lacan, My Teaching, trans., David Macey, London, Verso, 2008, p. 48.
[6] Jacques Lacan, “The Function and the Field of Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis,” trans.
Bruce Fink, in Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English, New York: Norton, 2006, p. 264. 321.
