The Pathology of Democracy: A Letter to Bernard Accoyer and to Enlightened Opinion (Ex-Tensions Series for Journal of Lacanian Studies)

Since its inception, Lacanian psychoanalysis has demonstrated a remarkable capacity for inducing acrimonious conflicts and facilitating tumultuous struggles between its own constituency and other areas of inquiry, as well as within its own ranks and among its most loyal adherents. Although Lacanianism has spread like wildfire across the academic disciplines, Lacan’s intellectual legacy has maintained a highly unstable equilibrium at the theoretical, clinical and institutional levels of its modus operandi. At the same time, Lacanians have often been at the forefront in addressing the socio-political and cultural tensions that pervade our contemporary living conditions and they have often taken the lead in responding to the pressures of our market economy to control and streamline the psychoanalytic profession. Published in association with the Journal for Lacanian Studies (JLS), this is the first title in a new series that addresses the tensions of Lacanian psychoanalysis.
This volume is by the renowned Lacanian Jacques-Alain Miller. On Wednesday 8 October 2003 the French National Assembly passed a bill intended to regulate, for the first time, the practice of psychotherapy in France. Moved by Bernard Accoyer, the purpose of the legislation was to restrict the practice of psychotherapy to psychiatrists and clinical psychologists; it would effectively no longer be legal for any other practitioners, including psychoanalysts, to practice in the sphere of mental health. This volume consists of Jacques-Alain Miller’s letter to Bernard Accoyer, opposing the bill. Contributions from Bernard Burgoyne and Russell Grigg are also included, examining the implications of such a bill in France and elsewhere.