PUBLICATION of MENTAL 27/28

Publication of Mental 27/28

Special issue marking the founding of the EuroFederation of Psychoanalysis

Over 130 international papers published.

Available soon at www.ecf-echoppe.com

  E d i t o r i a l

Brussels, capital of Europe, 2nd and 3rd July 2011.The founding Congress of the Euro-Federation of Psychoanalysis -EFP- gathers one thousand five hundred and fifty delegates, coming from nineteen European countries, around the title ‘Does Mental Health exist?’ This conference takes place in five languages. The media speaks about it, politicians are informed, the city of Brussels offers a cocktail reception to the delegation of the EFP in the City Hall of Brussels. The WHO Regional Adviser for Mental Health -Europe- sends a message to the attention of the delegates.

The first European Congress of Psychoanalysis -PIPOL 5- takes place under the sign of the great number of practitioners adhering to psychoanalysis of the Lacanian Orientation in Europe. At the time of the Congress, the EFP has over two thousand members. In addition, the Directory of Regions of the EuroFederation of Psychoanalysis identifies fifty-eight regions and eighty sub-regions in Europe. Each of these regions gathers together a community of work composed of practitioners assembled around psychoanalysis of the Lacanian Orientation.

These days, the resistance to psychoanalysis is enacted in civilization. Psychoanalysis is no longer only the subject of ethical, epistemic and clinical debate. It is also the object of a will to legislate and of an attempt at subjection to a political and administrative management. At such times, it is important to make « numbers ». However, the essential element of our ethics remains rooted in the concern for each case and its innermost singularity. That’s why we chose to publish in this issue of Mental all papers presented at this congress. On the one hand, this set is numerous, and on the other, we have not given ground on the quality of the singular. Each text has been selected, developed, reworked, cared for, pampered.

The question of whether mental health exists is not for us a true question. It is a rhetorical formula which highlights the fact that the concept of mental health is nothing but a fiction used to divert attention from the real and to put people to sleep, applying a mass logic on a « psy » clinic which cannot however respond but by means of the logic of the singular, that of the not-all. It is in the light of this conviction that the articles in this issue of Mental should be read. A reading we wish you fruitful.

Gil Caroz      

President of the EuroFederation of Psychoanalysis     

18th May 2012