About the EFP

Some history

The European School of Psychoanalysis (ESP) was created in 1990, anticipating the birth of the WAP (1992). Founded as the European Other of the École de la Cause Freudienne (ECF), it brought together several groups – in Europe and beyond – which were connected, in one way or another, to the Lacanian orientation. Since its creation, three schools have emerged from these groups and the ESP has welcomed them: the Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis (ELP) in Spain, created in 2000; the Scuola Lacaniana di Psicoanalisi (SLP) in Italy, created in 2002; and the New Lacanian School, which aggregates several countries from Europe and elsewhere, created in 2003.

In 2008, the ESP decided to become the European Federation of Schools of Psychoanalysis (FEEP). The ECF agreed to join as a member. Consequently, a federation exists that brings together the four European schools of the WAP whose purpose is to coordinate the fight against the ideology of evaluation and its legislative initiatives, as well as to combat certain health policies applied to mental health in the European Union countries. On the other hand, the FEEP, coordinated with the WAP, has had a number of important functions for the European schools, especially regarding the pass and other matters relating to the psychoanalyst’s training.

From the FEEP to the EuroFederation of Psychoanalysis

The transformation of the FEEP into EuroFederation of Psychoanalysis (EFP), recorded in the minutes of June 2010, is the result of a meeting with Jacques-Alain Miller, in preparation for PIPOL 5, in Brussels in January 2010. This transformation responds to a reading of the current political reality which concerns psychoanalysis on the “external” and “internal” levels. Externally, the EFP reflects a desire to be more present with European political authorities. The ideology of generalized evaluation, the diffusion of CBT practices, the legislative initiatives concerning the psy field which attack psychoanalysis, the attempts to marginalize speech practices by the development of neurosciences and the psychotropic drug market, are like the spare parts of a monstrous machine that it is no longer enough simply to study, criticize, and denounce it. It is now a question of giving our community of Lacanian orientation the consistency of a grain of sand capable of being lodged in the infernal cogs at the European level, no longer being able to be limited to the local struggles of each country – even if these of course retain all their importance.

It is in this spirit that we have been in contact, over the past two years, with the WHO regional adviser for mental health in Europe, based in Copenhagen, and that we have had discussions with him concerning the place of psychoanalysis in the landscape of mental health in Europe. In addition, we were in contact with Isabelle Durant, Vice-President of the European Parliament, who participated in the Women’s Forum organized in Paris by Jacques-Alain Miller in October 2011, as well as in an EFP activity in collaboration with the ACF-Belgium in Brussels in January 2012. We will continue to sustain these links.

Internally, the transformation of the FEEP into the EFP is a way of taking into account the “Paris event” of November 2009. On the one hand, this event placed the psychoanalyst’s own relationship with the unconscious, with the pass as horizon, at the heart of ethics and the training of the psychoanalyst.

On the other hand, it gave the floor to the “newcomers” – belonging to what Jacques-Alain Miller called the “Generation Forum” – who joined the ECF on the basis of their political commitment. The EuroFederation has the ambition to support this paradoxical knotting between a collective political commitment on a large scale and the principle of a “demassification of the enunciation”.

In addition, the EFP continues to fulfil the functions that the FEEP fulfilled in relation to the European Schools of the WAP. It has its own regulations on the pass and takes part in the debates on the modalities of these devices in the Schools. Thus, the EFP continues to support this extimate place in the seminars of some schools.

The Pass in the EuroFederation of Psychoanalysis

The rules of the pass within the framework of the EFP were modified in March 2016. This concerned the SLP and the NLS, for which ad hoc mechanisms were designed. Depending on experience, these devices may be revised. [https://www .europsychoanalysis.eu/la-passe /]. The ECF and the ELP have their own mechanisms.

A European Work Community

The EFP did not need to create a European community of Lacanian-oriented psychoanalysis: such a work community already existed at the time of its foundation. However, it had to be structured in order to acquire effective symbolic coherence. Two operations were necessary for this purpose: on the one hand, it was necessary to go beyond the limits of the organization of working communities around a country, a school, or a language, in order to open up to the European dimension. On the other hand, it was necessary to give substance to the large number of adherents to the Lacanian orientation of the WAP and the Freudian Field in Europe.

Over the past two years, we have found that the EFP, as the European signifier of psychoanalysis, supported by a large number of adherents, is an introductory step that allows us to open the doors to the European Union for political questions concerning psychoanalysis. In addition, this new signifier has had an effect on the life of our Schools and our working groups, promoting a whirlwind of exchanges between members of the groups who recognize themselves in their common membership of the EuroFederation, whatever the country or language or school to which they refer.

The Regional Directory of the EuroFederation of Psychoanalysis

The EFP’s regional directory helps shape our European community. It is coordinated by the secretary of the EFP.

In 2021, the directory was revised. This directory testifies to the diversity and the geographical distribution of the EFP in the European space, conceived not only as a geographical and political whole, but also as the declination of 57 regions and 84 sub-regions in which a psychoanalytic community is active. The directory notes the presence of a zone representative for each of them, with their contact details. This is the sixth edition of the directory, which is constantly updated.

From this 2021 edition, the Directory of Regions will be available in digital format on the EFP website.

The European Congress of Psychoanalysis

The first European Congress of Psychoanalysis (PIPOL 5) took place on July 2-3, 2011, at Square Brussels, chosen as the venue for all subsequent PIPOLs.

PIPOL 5: “Does mental health exist?”

PIPOL 6: After Oedipus: women conjugate IN THE FUTUR.

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

These Congresses bring together colleagues from all over Europe. They take place with simultaneous translation in five languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian and Dutch. The organizers want to give the Congress an epistemic and political dimension.

Mental

The magazine Mental carries the voice of the EFP loudly. It is a European journal of high epistemic quality, politically engaged in questions of psychoanalysis and mental health since its creation in 1995.

Website

An electronic EuroFederation site has been created. It is published in the four languages of the EFP Schools. It contains the founding texts, a presentation of the EFP, discussion texts, a section on Mental, information on the next European Congress, a space for the EFP directories, etc.

The site address: http://www.europsychoanalysis.eu/

PIPOL News

This electronic mailing list was created in April 2010 to stimulate debate within our European working community.

It is distributed in the four languages of the EFP Schools: English, Spanish, French and Italian. The archives of this newsletter are available on the site. EuroFederation members who have not yet done so are invited to subscribe to PIPOL NEWS by sending an e-mail without writing a request to the following address: pipolnews-subscribe@yahoogroupes.fr.

Updated on Monday, July 19, 2021

Guy Briole
President of the EuroFederation of Psychoanalysis.
Translate by Mathilde Madelin