Institutional psychotherapy (also known as institutional analysis) is a French psychiatric reform movement and approach to

group psychotherapy Group psychotherapy or group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group. The term can legitimately refer to any form of psychotherapy when delivered in a group format, i ...

influenced by

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

and

Lacanian psychoanalysis Lacanianism or Lacanian psychoanalysis is a theoretical system initiated by the work of Jacques Lacan from the 1950s to the 1980s. It is a theoretical approach that attempts to explain the mind, behaviour, and culture through a structuralism, str ...

starting in the 1950s. The Association of Institutional Psychotherapy was founded in November 1965. Those associated with the approach include François Tosquelles, Jean Oury,

Félix Guattari Pierre-Félix Guattari ( ; ; 30 March 1930 – 29 August 1992) was a French psychoanalyst, political philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, social activist, and screenwriter. He co-founded schizoanalysis with Gilles Deleuze, and created ecosophy ...

Frantz Fanon Frantz Omar Fanon (, ; ; 20 July 1925 – 6 December 1961) was a French West Indian psychiatrist, political philosopher, and Marxist from the French colony of Martinique (today a French department). His works have become influential in the ...

, and

Georges Canguilhem Georges Canguilhem (; ; 4 June 1904 – 11 September 1995) was a French philosopher and physician who specialized in epistemology and the philosophy of science (in particular, philosophy of biology, biology). Life and work Canguilhem entered t ...

. Institutional psychotherapy proposed a radical restructuring of the insane asylum and the mental health clinic where patients actively participated in running the facility. The approach began in Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole with Tosquelles, Fanon and Oury, and then continued at the La Borde clinic founded by Oury and where Guattari worked until his death. Institutional psychotherapy is also practiced by Patrick Chemla at the Centre Artaud in

Reims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...

and has spread to Spain and Italy. Although similar to

anti-psychiatry Anti-psychiatry, sometimes spelled antipsychiatry, is a movement based on the view that psychiatric treatment can often be more damaging than helpful to patients. The term anti-psychiatry was coined in 1912, and the movement emerged in the 1960s, ...

in its institutional critique, the founders of institutional psychotherapy were adamant about distinguishing their approach from it, claiming that anti-psychiatry failed to account for the reality of mental illness, arguing that psychosis is not merely a social construct and were open to neuroleptics and even at times to electroshock treatment. Guattari wrote of a "systematic failure" of many psychiatrists to understand "what was going on outside the hospital walls", leading to a tendency to psychologize social problems. The goal according to Guattari was to "never to isolate the study of mental illness from its social and institutional context, and...to analyze institutions on the basis of interpreting the real, symbolic and imaginary effects of society upon individuals." Institutional psychotherapy and the terminology used by the group of psychoanalysts associated with the approach took on a noticeable evolution throughout the 1960s to 1980s. After Guattari began to distance himself from the concept of

schizoanalysis Schizoanalysis (''or'' ecosophy, pragmatics, micropolitics, rhizomatics, or nomadology) (; ''schizo-'' from Greek σχίζειν ''skhizein'', meaning "to split") is a set of theories and techniques developed by philosopher Gilles Deleuze and psy ...

only one year after the publication of ''

Anti-Oedipus ''Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' () is a 1972 book by French authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the former a philosopher and the latter a psychoanalyst. It is the first volume of their collaborative work ''Capitalism and Sch ...

'' (1972), later Guattari proposed that "

institutional analysis Institutional analysis is the part of the social sciences that studies how institutions—i.e., structures and mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of two or more individuals—behave and function according to both em ...

" be used instead of "institutional psychotherapy". This change in nomenclature represented Guattari's intention to direct the practice at La Borde in a more political direction, calling for "a political analysis of desire. Guattari offered an extensive critique of institutional psychotherapy in the beginning of ''Molecular Revolution'' (1984) and introduced the concept of "institutional analysis". Guattari referred to the interactive

transference Transference () is a phenomenon within psychotherapy in which repetitions of old feelings, attitudes, desires, or fantasies that someone displaces are subconsciously projected onto a here-and-now person. Traditionally, it had solely co ...

that occurred at the La Borde clinic as "transversality", while Oury called it "transferential constellation".

External links

* http://www.bbk.ac.uk/hiddenpersuaders/blog/robcis-interview/ * ''Jean Oury and La Borde. Conversation with Camille Robcis''. http://somatosphere.net/2014/jean-oury-and-clinique-de-la-borde-a-conversation-with-camille-robcis.html/ * Susana Caló, ''The Grid'', 2016. https://www.anthropocene-curriculum.org/contribution/the-grid * https://epg.pubpub.org/pub/03-institutional-therapy/release/1 * Susana Caló, ''Can an Institution be Militant?'', 2019. https://www.academia.edu/38568214/Can_an_Institution_be_Militant Psychotherapy {{Psychiatry-stub

See also

Further reading

External links