Alain de Mijolla
| Alain de Mijolla | |
|---|---|
| Identity | |
| Nationality | French |
| Epistemic Position | |
| Tradition | Psychoanalysis, History of Psychoanalysis |
| Methodology | Freudian, Lacanian |
| Fields | Psychoanalysis, History of Ideas, Epistemology |
| Conceptual Payload | |
| Core Concepts | Transmission of psychoanalysis, Psychoanalytic genealogy, Intergenerational transmission, History of psychoanalytic institutions
|
| Associated Concepts | Transference, Unconscious, Genealogy, Subject, Institutional transmission |
| Key Works | Freud et la France; La transmission de la psychanalyse; Dictionnaire international de la psychanalyse |
| Theoretical Cluster | Transmission, History, Subjectivity |
| Psychoanalytic Relation | |
| De Mijolla's work systematized the study of psychoanalysis as a historical and conceptual field, foregrounding the mechanisms of transmission and transformation of Freudian and Lacanian thought. His genealogical approach clarified how psychoanalytic concepts migrate, mutate, and institutionalize across generations and national contexts. | |
| To Lacan | Documented and analyzed Lacan's institutional and conceptual transmission; mapped Lacan's place in the history of psychoanalysis. |
| To Freud | Chronicled Freud's reception and transformation in France; analyzed the structural transmission of Freudian concepts. |
| Referenced By | Lacanian historians, psychoanalytic theorists, institutional analysts
|
| Lineage | |
| Influences | Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault (genealogy), historians of science
|
| Influenced | Contemporary historians of psychoanalysis, institutional theorists, psychoanalytic genealogists
|
Alain de Mijolla is a French psychoanalyst, historian, and theorist whose foundational work on the transmission and genealogy of psychoanalytic ideas has shaped the field’s understanding of its own conceptual history. Best known for his systematic studies of how Freudian and Lacanian thought were received, transformed, and institutionalized in France and beyond, de Mijolla’s analyses have become central to the historiography and epistemology of psychoanalysis.
Intellectual Context and Biography
Alain de Mijolla emerged as a key figure in the historiography of psychoanalysis during the late twentieth century, at a moment when the discipline was increasingly reflecting on its own origins, institutional forms, and conceptual migrations. His intellectual formation was marked by engagement with both clinical psychoanalysis and the history of ideas, situating him at the intersection of practice and theory.
Early Formation
De Mijolla trained as a psychoanalyst in France, entering a milieu deeply shaped by the legacies of Sigmund Freud and the ongoing transformations initiated by Jacques Lacan. His early work reflected a dual commitment: to clinical practice and to the rigorous documentation of psychoanalysis’s historical development. Influenced by the French tradition of historical epistemology and by genealogical approaches associated with thinkers like Michel Foucault, de Mijolla developed a distinctive method for tracing the transmission of psychoanalytic concepts.
Major Turning Points
A decisive moment in de Mijolla’s career was his founding of the Société Internationale d’Histoire de la Psychanalyse and his editorial leadership of the Dictionnaire international de la psychanalyse. These projects consolidated his role as the principal chronicler of psychoanalysis’s institutional and conceptual evolution, especially in the French context. His work increasingly focused on the mechanisms by which psychoanalytic knowledge is transmitted—across generations, institutions, and national borders.
Core Concepts
Transmission of Psychoanalysis
De Mijolla’s most influential concept is the transmission of psychoanalysis: the complex processes by which psychoanalytic knowledge, practice, and institutional forms are passed from one generation to the next. He distinguishes between direct transmission (through teaching, supervision, and training analysis) and structural or institutional transmission (through the founding of societies, journals, and training programs). This concept foregrounds the non-linear, contested, and often conflictual nature of psychoanalytic inheritance.[1]
Psychoanalytic Genealogy
Drawing on Foucaultian genealogy, de Mijolla developed a method for mapping the descent and transformation of psychoanalytic concepts. Rather than treating psychoanalysis as a static doctrine, he emphasizes its historical mutations, internal schisms, and the ways in which concepts such as the unconscious or transference acquire new meanings in different contexts.[2]
Intergenerational Transmission
De Mijolla also explored the psychoanalytic significance of intergenerational transmission—not only at the level of ideas, but in the psychic life of individuals and families. He analyzed how unconscious contents, traumas, and desires are transmitted across generations, linking this to the broader question of how psychoanalytic knowledge itself is inherited and transformed.[3]
History of Psychoanalytic Institutions
A further core concept is the institutional history of psychoanalysis. De Mijolla meticulously documented the founding, schisms, and transformations of psychoanalytic societies, journals, and training institutes, arguing that institutional forms are not neutral containers but active agents in the shaping of psychoanalytic theory and practice.[4]
Relation to Psychoanalysis
De Mijolla’s relation to psychoanalysis is both direct and structural. He is not a primary theorist of psychoanalytic concepts in the manner of Freud or Lacan, but rather a meta-theorist whose work clarifies how psychoanalysis understands and transmits itself.
Freud
De Mijolla’s work on Freud et la France systematically traced the reception, translation, and transformation of Freudian thought in the French context. He documented the ways in which Freud’s concepts—such as the Oedipus complex, unconscious, and transference—were reinterpreted by French analysts, often in response to local institutional and intellectual pressures.[5] This analysis revealed both the fidelity and the creative infidelity of French psychoanalysis to its Freudian origins.
Lacan
De Mijolla’s relation to Lacan is primarily that of a historian and analyst of transmission. He mapped Lacan’s institutional trajectory—from the Société psychanalytique de Paris to the École freudienne de Paris—and analyzed how Lacan’s reworking of Freudian concepts was both enabled and constrained by institutional dynamics.[6] De Mijolla’s genealogical approach made it possible to see Lacan not simply as a solitary genius, but as a node in a complex network of transmission, rupture, and re-foundation.
Modes of Influence
De Mijolla’s influence on psychoanalysis is both direct—through his documentation and theorization of transmission—and structural, in that his work has shaped how psychoanalysis conceives of its own history and institutional forms. His genealogical method has been taken up by later historians and theorists, who have used it to analyze the migration of psychoanalytic concepts across disciplines and national contexts.
Reception in Psychoanalytic Theory
De Mijolla’s work has been widely cited by historians of psychoanalysis, institutional theorists, and Lacanian scholars. His Dictionnaire international de la psychanalyse is a standard reference, used by figures such as Élisabeth Roudinesco, Jacques-Alain Miller, and Julia Kristeva in their own historical and theoretical work.[7] Debates have arisen over the extent to which de Mijolla’s genealogical method can account for the conceptual creativity of psychoanalytic theorists, with some critics arguing that it risks reducing theory to institutional history. Nonetheless, his insistence on the material and institutional conditions of conceptual transmission has become a touchstone for contemporary psychoanalytic historiography.
Key Works
- Freud et la France (year uncertain): A comprehensive study of the reception and transformation of Freud’s ideas in France, documenting the translation, institutionalization, and reinterpretation of Freudian psychoanalysis.
- La transmission de la psychanalyse (year uncertain): An analysis of the mechanisms by which psychoanalytic knowledge is transmitted across generations, institutions, and national contexts.
- Dictionnaire international de la psychanalyse (editor, year uncertain): A multi-volume reference work mapping the concepts, figures, and institutions of psychoanalysis worldwide, with particular attention to their historical transformations.
- Psychanalyse et transmission (year uncertain): A study of the intergenerational transmission of unconscious contents and its relation to the broader question of psychoanalytic inheritance.
Influence and Legacy
Alain de Mijolla’s legacy lies in his transformation of psychoanalysis’s relation to its own history. By foregrounding the mechanisms of transmission, genealogy, and institutional formation, he enabled psychoanalysts and theorists to reflect critically on the conditions of their own knowledge. His work has influenced not only historians of psychoanalysis, but also theorists concerned with the migration of concepts across disciplines, the formation of intellectual traditions, and the politics of institutional life. De Mijolla’s genealogical method continues to inform contemporary debates about the future of psychoanalysis and its place in the broader history of ideas.
See also
References
- ↑ De Mijolla, A. La transmission de la psychanalyse. Paris: PUF.
- ↑ De Mijolla, A. Freud et la France. Paris: Masson.
- ↑ De Mijolla, A. Psychanalyse et transmission. Paris: PUF.
- ↑ De Mijolla, A. (ed.) Dictionnaire international de la psychanalyse. Paris: Calmann-Lévy.
- ↑ De Mijolla, A. Freud et la France. Paris: Masson.
- ↑ De Mijolla, A. (ed.) Dictionnaire international de la psychanalyse. Paris: Calmann-Lévy.
- ↑ Roudinesco, E. La bataille de cent ans: Histoire de la psychanalyse en France. Paris: Seuil.
External Links
- https://www.encyclopediepsychoanalyse.org/ (International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis)
- https://www.sihp.fr/ (Société Internationale d’Histoire de la Psychanalyse)