Piera Aulagnier (; née Spairani, ; November 19, 1923 – March 31, 1990) was an Italian-born French
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...
and
psychoanalyst
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...
. Her contributions to psychoanalysis include the concepts of interpretative violence, pictogram and originary process.
Life and contributions
Aulagnier was born in
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
in 1923, and trained in medicine at
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, before finishing psychiatric training in Paris after 1950. She undertook a training analysis with
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...
from 1955 to 1961,
[Biography of Piera Aulagnier at Psychoanalytikerinnen.de](_blank)
/ref> and followed him in 1964 into the newly formed École freudienne de Paris
The École freudienne de Paris (EFP; English: "Freudian School of Paris") was a French psychoanalytic professional body formed in 1964 by Jacques Lacan. It became 'a vital—if conflict-ridden—institution until its dissolution in 1980'.
Early hi ...
, where she remained for some time a close confidant. In 1969, however, Aulagnier, and François Perrier split from the EFP over the bitter question of the Pass as a qualification for analyst status, and created the (OPLF), the so-called "Quatrième Groupe" (Fourth Group). The organization played a prominent role in post-Lacanian
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 structuralist and ...
psychoanalysis.
Aulagnier, founder of the journal ''L'Inconscient'' (launched in 1967) and the journal ' (launched in 1969), is considered one of the most influential French psychoanalysts of her generation, together with Jean Laplanche
Jean Laplanche (; 21 June 1924 – 6 May 2012) was a French author, psychoanalyst and winemaker. Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development and Sigmund Freud's seduction theory, and wrote more than a dozen books on psych ...
, Jean-Bertrand Pontalis
Jean-Bertrand Lefèvre-Pontalis (; 15 January 1924, Paris – 15 January 2013, Paris) was a French philosopher, writer, editor and psychoanalyst.
Career
A student of Jean-Paul Sartre, Pontalis became a professor of philosophy in the 1940s, bef ...
and André Green. Aulagnier created an original, if difficult theory of child psychosis
In psychopathology, psychosis is a condition in which a person is unable to distinguish, in their experience of life, between what is and is not real. Examples of psychotic symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized or inco ...
, revolving around the experiences of infant-mother relationships in early childhood, and drawing on and developing the theories of both Winnicott and Lacan. In particular she proposed the concept of the pictogram as an initial link between the body zones and the first mental representations; and continued to work for a theoretical recuperation of the importance of body and feelings as non-verbal presences within early thought.
She also warned against the danger of interpretations being experienced as invasive by an analysand, (particularly when their own omnipotence
Omnipotence is the property of possessing maximal power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as ...
has been projected onto the analyst).
Aulagnier died in 1990 in Paris.
She was married to businessman André Aulagnier.Cornelius Castoriadis
Cornelius Castoriadis (; 11 March 1922 – 26 December 1997) was a Greeks in France, Greek-FrenchMemos 2014, p. 18: "he was ... granted full French citizenship in 1970." philosopher, sociologist, social critic, economist, psychoanalyst, au ...
, and they remained married from 1968 until 1978.
Selected writings
* Piera Castoriadis-Aulagnier. ''The Violence of Interpretation'' (2001 975
Year 975 ( CMLXXV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* Arab–Byzantine War: Emperor John I raids Mesopotamia and invades Syria, using the Byzantine base at Antioch to pres ...
. Brunner-Routledge .
See also
Notes
Citations
References
* Sophie de Mijolla-Mellor (1998). ''Penser la psychose. Une lecture de l'oeuvre de Piera Aulagnier''. Dunod.
* Sophie de Mijolla-Mellor (2005). "Aulagnier-Spairani, Piera." In: A. de Mijolla (ed.), ''International dictionary of psychoanalysis, vol. 1'' (pp. 129–30). Thomson Gale.
* Hélène Troisier (1998). ''Piera Aulagnier''. Presses Universitaires de France.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aulagnier, Piera
1923 births
1990 deaths
French psychiatrists
French psychoanalysts
Physicians from Milan
Analysands of Jacques Lacan
20th-century French writers
20th-century French women writers
20th-century French physicians
French women psychiatrists
Italian emigrants to France
20th-century French psychologists
20th-century French women physicians