Miller/prelims correx 8/12/04 4:57 pm Page i 1 2 311 4 5 THE PATHOLOGY 6 7 OF DEMOCRACY 8 9 A letter to Bernard Accoyer 10 1 and to enlightened opinion 2 3 4 Jacques-Alain Miller 5 6 with contributions by 7 Bernard Burgoyne and 8 Russell Grigg 9 201 1 2 Translators 3 Adrian Price and Victoria Woollard 4 5 6 Ex-tensions (A JLS supplement) 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 711 KARNAC 8 Miller/prelims correx 8/12/04 4:57 pm Page iii 1 2 311 CONTENTS 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Series Preface 1 Dany Nobus v 2 About the Authors vii 3 4 PART I 5 Introduction 6 Love of the Real 7 Bernard Burgoyne 3 8 9 PART II 201 1 Amendment 336 17 2 3 PART III 4 5 Letter to Bernard Accoyer and to 6 enlightened opinion 7 J.-A. Miller 25 8 9 PART IV 30 The Psy Manifesto 1 J.-A. Miller 55 2 3 PART V 4 5 Postscript 6 Regulating Psychoanalysis 711 Russell Grigg 61 8 Miller/prelims correx 8/12/04 4:57 pm Page iv 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 201 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 711 8 Miller/prelims correx 8/12/04 4:57 pm Page v 1 2 311 SERIES PREFACE 4 5 6 7 8 JLS Ex-tensions 9 10 A book series from Karnac edited by Dany Nobus 1 2 Since its inception, Lacanian psychoanalysis has demon- 3 strated a remarkable capacity for inducing acrimonious 4 conflicts and facilitating tumultuous struggles between its 5 own constituency and other areas of inquiry, as well as 6 within its own ranks and amongst its most loyal adherents. 7 Although Lacanianism has spread like wildfire across the 8 academic disciplines, Lacan’s intellectual legacy has main- 9 tained a highly unstable equilibrium at the theoretical, 201 clinical, and institutional levels of its modus operandi. At 1 the same time, Lacanians have often been at the forefront 2 in addressing the socio-political and cultural tensions that 3 pervade our contemporary living conditions and they have 4 often taken the lead in responding to the pressures of our 5 market economy to control and streamline the psychoana- 6 lytic profession. Published in association with the Journal 7 for Lacanian Studies (JLS), this series of short books aims to 8 address ‘extant tensions’ affecting the broad field of 9 Lacanian psychoanalysis, whether they originate within its 30 own boundaries or outside its direct sphere of influence. 1 The objective is not to resolve these tensions, nor to inter- 2 pret them through the application of psychoanalytic know- 3 ledge, but to pinpoint their significance and assess their 4 implications for a world that has psychoanalysts in it. 5 6 711 8 v Miller/prelims correx 8/12/04 4:57 pm Page vi 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 201 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 711 8 Miller/prelims correx 8/12/04 4:57 pm Page vii 1 2 311 ABOUT THE AUTHORS 4 5 6 7 Bernard Burgoyne is a psychoanalyst practising in 8 London. He is a Member of the World Association of Psy- 9 choanalysis, and a Professor of Psychoanalysis at Middle- 10 sex University. He was educated at the University of 1 Cambridge, the London School of Economics, and the 2 University of Paris. He has published extensively on ques- 3 tions of structure in psychoanalysis. 4 5 Jacques-Alain Miller is graduate of the École normale 6 supérieure, a member of the École de la Cause freudienne and 7 the founder and former president of the World Association 8 of Psychoanalysis. Editor of the books of Jacques Lacan’s 9 Seminar, he has published several books under his own 201 name, including Lettres à l’opinion éclairée (Seuil), Le Neveu 1 de Lacan (Verdier), and recently, Voulez-vous être évalué? 2 (Grasset) with the philosopher Jean-Claude Milner, a tran- 3 scription of two sessions from his weekly seminar at the 4 Department of Psychoanalysis, Paris VIII, of which he is 5 the director. Jacques-Alain Miller lives and works in Paris. 6 7 Russell Grigg is a member of the Ecole de la Cause freu- 8 dienne and of the New Lacanian School. He lives in 9 Melbourne, where he practices psychoanalysis and teaches 30 philosophy and psychoanalytic studies at Deakin 1 University. 2 3 4 5 6 711 8 vii Miller/prelims correx 8/12/04 4:57 pm Page viii 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 In memory of Françoise Giroud 6 7 8 9 201 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 711 8 Miller/correx 8/12/04 2:48 pm Page 1 1 2 311 4 5 PART I 6 7 8 INTRODUCTION 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 201 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 711 8 Miller/correx 8/12/04 2:48 pm Page 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 201 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 711 8 Miller/correx 8/12/04 2:48 pm Page 3 1 2 311 Love of the Real 4 5 6 Bernard Burgoyne 7 8 9 Stuart Hampshire and Iris Murdoch once engaged in a dia- 10 logue about human nature and the meaning of freedom. 1 Hampshire stressed the importance for human freedom of 2 ‘crystal-clear intentions’; Murdoch responded by insisting 3 on the functioning of ‘something more obscure, more his- 4 torically conditioned, and usually less clearly conscious’. 5 He thought that ‘the history of the individual’ ought to be 6 accessible to philosophical reflection, and that this could 7 be achieved through having access to ‘a “science” which 8 concerns itself especially with the history of the individual: 9 psychoanalysis’. She took his notion of such a ‘perfect psy- 201 choanalysis’ to be too grounded in a philosopher’s view of 1 ‘scientific therapy’; the real issues at stake she thought lay 2 in establishing techniques that directed a human being 3 away from what is bad – for themselves and others – and 4 towards what was good. He took it that a study of fan- 5 tasies would bring some enlightenment about the mecha- 6 nisms of the mind; she agreed that people could be 7 brought to tolerate and engage with what is real in their 8 lives through ‘the liberation of the soul from fantasy’ – she 9 disagreed in taking it that there was a point ‘outside the 30 fantasy’, attachment to which would produce the condi- 1 tions for human progress (Murdoch, 1970). Neither of 2 these two philosophers thought of promoting the hypoth- 3 esis that the State knew enough about these difficult ques- 4 tions to find itself in a position where it could effectively 5 decide and resolve them. 6 Jacques-Alain Miller, in his commentary on the recent 711 sudden intervention into these fields by the French State, 8 3 Miller/correx 8/12/04 2:48 pm Page 4 4 BERNARD BURGOYNE 1 points out the simplistic modes of thinking governing 2 the motivations of those who initiated it. The aim of the 3 Accoyer Amendment was to subordinate all psychothera- 4 peutic practice in France – including psychoanalysis – to 5 the control of psychiatrists and psychologists. The inten- 6 tion was to move to the appointment of individuals and 7 panels who would be in positions of control over all levels 8 of psychotherapeutic work: referral, practice, supervision, 9 training. Little matter the ignorance of the State on ques- 10 tions of the relation of psychoanalysis to psychiatry; little 1 matter the ignorance of the State on questions of the rela- 2 tion of psychoanalysis to psychology; little matter the 3 ignorance of the State on internal questions of the nature 4 of psychoanalysis and of the various psychotherapies. 5 What mattered for those promoting this manoeuvre was 6 the administrative taking over of the profession of psy- 7 chotherapy in France. These recent developments were 8 very swift. By comparison the situation in the UK is very 9 different – in fact nowhere else in Europe has such an arbi- 201 trary and ill-considered transformation by the State been 1 introduced, even though the laws brought in by the com- 2 munist deputy Adriano Ossicini in Italy came close to it. 3 Let me describe a little some of the history of how things 4 have been determined in this field in the UK. 5 The State in Britain responded to a period of moral panic 6 about the effects of Scientology in the late 1960s by com- 7 missioning enquiries that led to the publication of the 8 Foster Report in 1971 and the Sieghart report in 1978. The 9 outcome of this was the recommendation to introduce a 30 control into the practice of psychotherapy in the UK by the 1 setting up of a form of ‘indicative’ registration.