René Laforgue (5 November 18946 March 1962) was a French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

Biography

Laforgue was born in Thann (then part of the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

) and died in Paris. He studied medicine in Berlin, and in 1919 wrote a thesis on "The Affects in Schizophrenia Patients from a Psychoanalytical Point of View". As his interest in psychoanalysis developed, he underwent a training analysis and began a correspondence with Sigmund Freud. In 1926, along with Marie Bonaparte and eight others, he founded the Paris Psychoanalytic Society, where he became one of the most prominent members. His (unsuccessful) attempt to collaborate with the Nazis over the Aryanisation of the society in Paris during the Occupation in World War Two cast something of a shadow over his later career, and in the year of his death, 1962, he was removed from the roster of training analysts by the International Psychoanalytical Association. Laforgue is the author of several books on psychoanalysis, albeit more popularising than original; as well as of a variety of articles on subjects ranging from the eroticization of fear in gambling, through the development of the sense of reality, to such defense mechanisms as psychological repression and isolation. Intellectually however he remained as much indebted to the French tradition of

Pierre Janet Pierre Marie Félix Janet (; 30 May 1859 – 24 February 1947) was a pioneering French psychologist, physician, philosopher, and psychotherapist in the field of dissociation and traumatic memory. He is ranked alongside William James and ...

and

Henri Claude Henri Charles Jules Claude (31 March 1869 – 29 November 1945) was a French psychiatrist and neurologist born in Paris. He studied medicine under Charles-Joseph Bouchard (1837-1915), and was an assistant to Fulgence Raymond (1844-1910) at the S ...

as to Freud; and the tensions implicit in his competing allegiances contributed to his debate with Freud over the French introduction of the term

scotomization Scotomization is a psychological term for the mental blocking of unwanted perceptions, analogous to the visual blindness of an actual scotoma. Controversies Reviving in the 1920s a term initially used by Charcot in connection with hysteria, the F ...

. Initially welcomed as a description of the blocking of unpleasant perceptions in

hysteria Hysteria is a term used colloquially to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that ...

by Freud, the latter swiftly turned against it, arguing that Laforgue himself maintained "that 'scotomization' is a term that arises from descriptions of dementia praecox, which does not arise from a carrying over of psychoanalytic concepts". Despite their theoretical disagreement, the two men remained on friendly terms, Laforgue visiting the Freuds on occasion in the 1920s: he would in the 1950s write a memoir of them, which offers a rare glimpse of

Martha Freud Martha Bernays ( , ; 26 July 1861 – 2 November 1951) was the wife of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Bernays was the second daughter of Emmeline and Berman Bernays. Her paternal grandfather Isaac Bernays was a Chief Rabbi of Hamburg. Ba ...

as "a practical woman, marvellously skillful in creating an atmosphere of peace and '' joie de vivre''".Quoted in P. Gay, ''Freud'' (1989) p. 61

Bibliography

* Clinical Aspects of Psycho-Analysis. Hogarth Press, 1938 * The defeat of Baudelaire: A psycho-analytical study of the neurosis of

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

. Norwood Editions, 1978

Bibliography about him

Alain de Mijolla Alain de Mijolla (15 May 1933, in Paris – 24 January 2019) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Mijolla was analyzed by Conrad Stein and Denise Braunschweig. He became a psychoanalyst in the Societe psychanalytique de Paris in 1968, ...

, ''Freud et la France, 1885–1945'', Presses Universitaires de France, 2010 () * M.O. Poivet, ''René Laforgue. Sa place originale dans la naissance du mouvement psychanalytique français.'' (1978). dirigé par

André Bourguignon André Bourguignon (8 August 1920 – 9 April 1996) was a French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, born in Paris. A psychiatry professor at the University of Paris XII, he was part of a team in charge of translating Sigmund Freud's work from German ...

(Université de Paris Val-de-Marne, Créteil). * Martine Lilamand, ''René Laforgue, fondateur du mouvement psychanalytique français. Sa vie, son œuvre.'' (1980). dirigé par

(Université de Paris Val-de-Marne, Créteil). * Annick Ohayon : ''Psychologie et psychanalyse en France. L'impossible rencontre 1919–1969'', Ed. La Découverte, 2006,

References

External links

* 1894 births 1962 deaths People from Thann, Haut-Rhin People from Alsace-Lorraine French psychoanalysts French psychiatrists {{France-psychiatrist-stub

Biography

Bibliography

Bibliography about him

See also

References

External links