Acknowledgements

Monique Cournut-Janin and first I met in Brighton in 1998, at the first of the Anglo-French Colloquia organized by Anne-Marie Sandler and Haydée Faimberg. The book I had edited with Joan Raphael-Leff, Female Experience: Three Generations of Women Psychoanalysts on Work with Women (1997), had just been published. Monique approached me and expressed her appreciation of the book. I was familiar with her work on femininity and female sexuality that she had written with Jean Cournut and presented for the Congrès des Psychanalystes de Langue Française, in 1993, La castration et le féminin dans les deux sexes (Paris: PUF), and was delighted that she had enjoyed our book. We decided to organize a series of meetings between French and British analysts, focused on the theme of sexuality, which would also be open to candidates. The first theme, femininity, was chosen on the spot, as this had been the topic that we had both been writing about. Another idea that emerged at the time was that we would lead preparatory seminars on both sides of the Channel, where we would read the same bibliographic works as a background to our discussions. This was the beginning of a fruitful and productive series of encounters that enabled cross-fertilization between our ideas and practices. Chantal Lechartier-Atlan and Danielle Kaswin Bonneford joined Monique Cournut-Janin in the organization of the Colloquia on the French side.

Several factors forced us to cancel in 2014 and then again in 2016: the terrorist attack in Paris, and then the SPP’s move from Rue St Jacques to Rue Daviel. We had already decided on a theme

– masochism – which I started to discuss with a group of colleagues and candidates in the British Psychoanalytical Society. Thirty-five members and candidates came to the seminar on masochism that I led in May 2016 and again in June 2017. Perhaps other encounters will follow.

The following themes were the focus of our joint encounters, which alternated between London and Paris: