La Formation Du Psychanalyste. Esquisse D'Une Théorie. (Psychoanalytic Training. Outline of a Theory.): By Jean-Paul Valabrega. Paris: Pierre Belfond, 1979. 224 pp.

Suppose an analyst puts up some political poster or other form of manifesto on his office wall, or wears a political emblem in his lapel. What would we think? Assuredly, says Valabrega, if someone cannot

restrain his desire to show himself, he would do better to do something other than analysis. Such an analyst would be no different, for Valabrega, from one who wears a pectoral cross, or does his analyses under a crucifix. Such a person might be able to be a confessor, but not an analyst. And one must be just as wary of insignias, totems, and emblems that are carried, as it were, in the interior as of those placed on the analyst's wall or lapel. The effects would be just as questionable, perhaps even more so, since they would be less apparent (pp. 197-198). In France, the dual phenomena of political activism and the history of Lacanian discipleship have made many analysts acutely aware of these problems; and their discussion promises to be a continuing one.1

Valabrega's book details his views on the master/pupil relationship in psychoanalysis and on the problem of ideologies, whether analytic or political. It is a collection of six essays written between 1969 and 1977 on the theme of psychoanalytic education and training. The background to the essays is interesting, for it illustrates the turmoil through which psychoa