Jean Laplanche facts for kids

Jean Laplanche (French: [laplɑ̃ʃ]; 21 June 1924 – 6 May 2012) was a French author, psychoanalyst and winemaker. Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development, and wrote more than a dozen books on psychoanalytic theory. The journal Radical Philosophy described him as "the most original and philosophically informed psychoanalytic theorist of his day."

From 1988 to his death, Laplanche was the scientific director of the German to French translation of Freud's complete works (Oeuvres Complètes de Freud / Psychanalyse – OCF.P) in the Presses Universitaires de France, in association with André Bourguignon, Pierre Cotet and François Robert.

Life

Early

Laplanche grew up in the Côte d'Or region of France. In his adolescence he was active in Catholic Action, a left-wing social justice organization. Laplanche attended the École Normale Supérieure in the 1940s, studying philosophy. He was a student of Jean Hyppolite, Gaston Bachelard and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In 1943, during the Vichy regime, Laplanche joined the French Resistance, and was active in Paris and Bourgogne. In 1946–47, he visited Harvard University for a year. Instead of joining that university's philosophy department, he instead studied at the Department of Social Relations, and became interested in psychoanalytic theory. After returning to France, Laplanche began attending lectures and undergoing psychoanalytic treatment under Jacques Lacan. Laplanche, advised by Lacan, began studying medicine, and eventually earned his doctorate and became an analyst himself, joining the International Psychoanalytical Association, of which he remained a member until his death.

Laplanche continued his political activity. In 1948, Laplanche was one of the founding members of the organization Socialisme ou Barbarie (Socialism or Barbarism) after breaking with Trotskyism, but notes that the group's "atmosphere soon became impossible", due to the influence of Cornelius Castoriadis, who "exerted hegemony over the journal." Nevertheless, Laplanche remained "in favour of the thesis of Socialisme ou Barbarie" until 1968.

Later

Winemaking in Pommard

Laplanche for many years ran Chateau de Pommard, a French vineyard, together with his wife Nadine. Chateau de Pommard is a 50-acre (20 ha) winery in Burgundy, and has the longest continuous vineyard in the Côte-d'Or region. The Laplanches lived on the estate and made wine for a number of years. In 2003, the couple sold the estate to new owners. The deal included an agreement that the Laplanches would remain on the estate and continue for some time to participate in the winemaking process. Their wine has been advertised as "the only wine in the world grown and bottled by an old disciple of Lacan's."

Laplanche and his wife were interviewed, about both wine and psychoanalysis, in Agnès Varda's documentary The Gleaners and I.

Nadine Laplanche died in spring 2010. Jean Laplanche seemed to live exclusively in Pommard until his death two years later.

The psychoanalyst, the scientific man and the academic

Jean Laplanche was one of the founders of the Association Psychanalytique de France (1964) and served also as its president in 1969–1971. He was later an honorary member of this Association with Jean-Bertrand Pontalis and Guy Rosolato.

Laplanche was granted honorary doctorates from the University of Lausanne (1986), the University of Buenos Aires, and the University of Athens. He was the winner of the Mary S. Sigourney Award (1995). Laplanche was also made a Knight of Arts and Letters in 1990.

Jean Laplanche was an Emeritus Professor of the University of Paris, where he taught from 1970 until 1993: he introduced the teaching of psychoanalysis in the "U.F.R. des Sciences Humaines Cliniques" in Paris VII and brought it to the level of research. He supervised theses of students, who are now teaching "psychoanalysis in the university" (title of the research-review founded by Jean Laplanche: 1975–1994) in France and elsewhere in the world (especially in Latin America).

Work

Laplanche published his first book in 1961. The following year, he was invited to a position at the Sorbonne by Daniel Lagache. Since then, Laplanche maintained a regular publication schedule. Together with colleague Jean-Bertrand Pontalis, Laplanche in 1967 published The Language of Psycho-Analysis, which has become a standard encyclopedic reference on psychoanalysis. It was translated into English in 1973, and its thirteenth French edition was published in 1997. Laplanche was president of the Association Psychoanalytique de France from 1969 to 1971, being succeeded by Pontalis. His seminars have been published in the seven volume Problématiques series while many of his most important essays are found in La révolution copernicienne inachevée (1992).

The Unfinished Copernican Revolution

Laplanche published a collection of essays under the title "The Unfinished Copernican Revolution" which referred specifically to the "object" of psychoanalysis, the unconscious.

Gender

The category of gender, says Jean Laplanche, is often "absent or unnoticed" in Freud. It is the child in the presence of adults, which raises the question of this difference which exists in adults. Gender assignment "is a complex process of acts which extends into the language and behavior of the child's significant others, its entourage". The child is "bombarded" by "prescriptive" messages which it has to translate and make sense of — 'messages of gender assignment, all those provided by the adults close to the child: parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters. Their fantasies, their unconscious or preconscious expectations'. Thus for Jean Laplanche "Yes, gender precedes sex. But instead of organizing it, it is organized by the latter."

See also

• Afterwardsness