Didier Anzieu (1923-1999)

Didier Anzieu died in Paris on 25 November 1999. He was born on 8 July 1923. While still at school he worked with a former teacher on preparing a new edition of Pascal's Pensées, one that still commands respect and that he went on to re-edit in his own name in 1961. After brilliant achievements as a student of philosophy and literature, he became assistant to Daniel Lagache at the Sorbonne, in the newly created department of clinical psychology. Under his supervision he embarked on a doctoral thesis on ‘Freud's self-analysis and the discovery of psychoanalysis’, a project that he continued to work on for twenty years, which was finally published in 1975 and was translated into English shortly afterwards. The work is not only one of erudition that enriches our understanding of Freud's dreams, but also a reflection on self-analysis as it takes place in the psychic life of all analysts and nourishes their creativity. The choice of subject was also an indication of Anzieu's personal commitment, since on Lagache's advice he had undertaken a psychoanalytic training at the Société Psychanalytique de Paris by carrying out a didactic analysis with Jacques Lacan. Although he was deeply disappointed by this first analysis, he followed Lagache and Lacan in 1953 at the time of the schism that led to the formation of the Société Franćise de Psychanalyse. He completed his training and participated in the life of this organisation, which found itself outside the International Psychoanalytical Association as a result of the schism. Nevertheless, he made no secret of the distance he had travelled from his first analyst. Quite naturally, when a second schism took place in 1963, Anzieu found himself among those who rejoined the International Psychoanalytical Association, indicating their opposition to Lacan's practices. After the creation of this new organisation, the Association Psychanalytique de France, he played an active role in the scientific development and the political life of