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It should come as no surprise that the articulation and growth of psychoanalysis has charted divergent paths in distinct countries. A variety of factors contribute to the emergence of different hegemonic regimes, with some orientations and lineages gaining favor in certain milieus, while others find themselves marginalized and even dismissed or forgotten outright. Moreover, certain questions of clinical and theoretical concern arise in specific contexts, which speaks directly to how subjectivity and suffering are often understood in local terms and how psychoanalysis is deployed accordingly.
In the case of France, the different lineages and traditions within the larger camp of Lacanian psychoanalysis have seemingly dominated the field for over 50 years. This appears to be especially the case when seen from the outside — from the perspective, say, of the United States or Latin America. Looking at the psychoanalytic scene in France, we often equate it with Jacques Lacan and the several generations that have followed in the tradition that he established. This seeming hegemony, however, conceals the fact that, simultaneously, there exists a plethora of French non-Lacanian approaches to psychoanalytic work that are rich with theorization, experimentation, and committed practitioners.
Austrian psychoanalyst Wolfgang Lassmann seeks to redress this potential oversight by bringing into the English language a fascinating, deeply relevant, and worthwhile history of a French post-World War II psychoanalytic tradition rarely heard of in English-speaking countries. Lassmann's book provides a detailed, thoroughly researched, and engaging account of a group of dedicated analysts centered around the École Psychosomatique de Paris and their six-decades-long effort at working with a particular kind of patient whose clinical picture seemed to confound all previous theorization and expectation. This suffering subject exhibited a bewildering combination: often intense somatic issues paired