Alain de Mijolla was a neuro-psychiatrist and a full member of the Société Psychanalytique de Paris who made his mark on psychoanalysis through what he contributed to its history.1 His first book, co-authored with his friend Salem Shentoub, was on the topic of the psychoanalysis of alcoholism. However, with his second volume, Les visiteurs du moi , he began to make a name for himself, since he advanced in it a new and powerful notion, that of the unconscious identification with family members and especially with grandparents. His consideration of the importance of this generational leap coincided with a theoretical and clinical examination of the past, and this was the starting point for his interest in the history of psychoanalysis.

Alain de Mijolla's professional energy and efficiency made him an internationally recognized specialist in the history of psychoanalysis, and he himself