Presentation

The aim of this brief work is to bring together the tenets of psychoanalysis and to state them, as it were, dogmatically – in the most concise form and in the most unequivocal terms. Its intention is naturally not to compel belief or to arouse conviction.

The teachings of psycho-analysis are based on an incalculable number of observations and experiences, and only someone who has repeated those observations on himself and on others is in a position to arrive at a judgement of his own upon it. 1

This was how Freud expressed himself in July 1938, in the first lines of a preface introducing a work which death was to prevent him from finishing. It is a remarkable summary, gathering together in a few chapters the essence of his contributions.

Why an outline of psychoanalysis in 2002? Many arguments plead in favour of this formula. The first and the most evident is what is called, by general consensus, the crisis of psychoanalysis. It is a consensus that is none the less relative since there are some who say that this ‘bad patch’ cannot last as the intrinsic worth of psychoanalysis will enable it to come through it sooner or later. Not being a prophet, I shall not venture to predict the future, but will simply say that whatever fate the future holds in store for psychoanalysis, our present task is to fight for its survival today and for its victory tomorrow. One of the least contestable factors of the relative discredit into which it has fallen is the fragmentation of its knowledge, its dispersion, which has gone beyond tolerable limits because it calls into question its unity and exposes the absence of consensus among psychoanalysts. It is not the only one, but my aim here is not to denounce the causes of the problem exhaustively. Nevertheless, although I think the evolution of psychoanalytic thinking since Freud’s death justifies an ‘Outline’, this work will not provide a summary of all the ideas that have been

defended since this date. Of course the role of other people’