ÉCOLE DE LA CAUSE FREUDIENNE

After the failure of the negotiations between the Société française de psychanalyse (French Society for Psychoanalysis) and the International Psychoanalytical Association over whether to recognize Jacques Lacan as a training analyst, two groups were founded. One was the Association psychanalytique de France (French Psychoanalytic Association), which was founded on May 26, 1964, and became a member of the International Psychoanalytical Association even though it included a number of Lacanians. The other was theÉcole française de psychanalyse (French School of Psychoanalysis), founded by Jacques Lacan on June 21, 1964. The school was renamed theÉcole freudienne de Paris (Freudian School of Paris) when its bylaws were filed with the police on September 24 of the same year. Lacan dissolved this school by a letter dated January 5, 1980, though its legal dissolution was not voted on until September 27, 1980.

Then on February 21, 1980, with his "letter to the thousand," which was a call to follow him, Lacan founded the Freudian cause, which he entrusted to Solange Faladé, Charles Melman, and Jacques-Alain Miller to direct. Following much discord and many departures, including the resignations of Faladé and Melman, Lacan established, as his base, theÉcole de la Cause freudienne (ECF, School of the Freudian Cause). Its statutes were modified on September 24, 1993.

The ECF is the largest and most important Lacanian association in France. It has international connections with a number of other schools through the Association mondial de la psychanalyse (World Association of Psychoanalysis), founded in Paris in 1992. The ECF is represented by Jacques-Alain Miller, Lacan's son-in-law and literary executor, and is led by a directorate of five members (who serve terms of two years and are responsible for its administration) and a council (which guides its orientation). The school has two levels of membership: member analyst of the school, a permanent title, and analyst of the school, a temporary title. These titles are holdovers from the old École Freudienne de Paris. Also, a practicing analyst can declare his or her practice within the school without the school certifying it.

The Association de la Cause freudienne (Association of the Freudian Cause) was founded on November 1, 1992, to gather the fifteen regional associations of the ECF, most of which publish a journal or bulletin. Through the Association mondial de la psychanalyse and the Association de la fondation du champ freudienne (Association for the Foundation of the Freudian Field), founded by Lacan in 1979 and directed by his daughter Judith Miller, the Lacanian movement has an official presence in twenty-six foreign countries (and an especially important presence inLatin America). Two organizations have split off from the ECF: theÉcole de psychanalyse Sigmund Freud (The Sigmund Freud School of Psychoanalysis), which was founded in May 1994 and which revived the experiment of the pass (See Daniel Lagache, "On the Experiment of the Pass" [1973]), and the Forums du champ lacanian (Forums of the Lacanian Field), which was founded in May 1999 by three former presidents of the ECF.

The ECF publishes a semiannual journal, Cause freudienne, and a monthly newsletter.

Jacques SÉdat

See also: École Freudienne de Paris (Freudian School of Paris); France; Lacan, Jacques-MarieÉmile; Movement lacanien français.