The Countertransfererence Scene in France1

I make no claim in this paper to review every single contribution made by French psychoanalysis to the subject of the countertransference. I shall confine myself to a personal viewpoint, which will itself no doubt have a countertransference aspect, in the broad sense of a countertransference connected with my clinical experience as a whole.

The theories I shall present are mainly those which have influenced the thinking and practice not only of myself but also of many colleagues of my generation—the writings and accounts that have helped me to negotiate the inevitable risks of the countertransference. I should therefore add that I have deliberately chosen to concentrate, among the authors who have influenced me, on those who have explicitly focused a part of their work on the countertransference.

In reviewing the French contributions and comparing them with those from the English-speaking countries and South America, I quickly noticed that publications devoted explicitly to the countertransference began to appear in any number only quite late on in France: they date back to the beginning of the nineteen seventies, with the work of Serge Viderman and Michel Neyraut. Admittedly, analysts such as Sacha Nacht, Jacques Lacan, Daniel Lagache and Michel Bouvet had touched upon the subject before them, but only marginally and in ultimately very restrictive terms.

Why this delay? The reason became clear as soon as I recalled the part played by Jacques Lacan in French psychoanalysis, especially as I myself attended his seminars for a few years until 1976, when I parted company with his school.

Going back in time somewhat, we may briefly note that in the post-war period, from 1945 until at least 1953, the year when Lacan left the Paris Psychoanalytical Society and the IPA, his teaching was one of the most influential currents in that society, even if his practice was already controversial. He came to be seen as a guru, whose ideas became highly fashiona