Bücher von Dominique Scarfone

In one of his introductory lectures to psychoanalysis, Freud had this to say: "It is In general not such a common thing for psycho-analysis to deny something asserted by other people; as a rule it merely adds something new-though no doubt it occasionally happens that this thing that has hit her to been overlooked and Is now brought up as a fresh addition Is In fact the essence of the matter." (Freud, 1916-17, p. 45) The remark applies beautifully to the theory of communication or, for that matter, to the theory of human at­tachment. Psychoanalysis has noth­ing to deny in those areas of study, but it has probably something essen­tial to add. "While an indisputable fact about human reality is that of communication and its corollary, making sense of what is communicated, only psychoanal­ysis takes notice of the particular situation created when communication happens between an adult and an infans-literally: the one who does not speak. Nor is it given much attention, even among psychoanalysts, that there is a special 'noise' carried over in the channels of communication between the two, a noise resulting from the difference regarding the uncon­scious sexual dimension." - DOMINIQUE SCARFONE I proposed we have a conversation after each of your essays as a way to engage your work, to ask for clarifications on the reader's behalf, and to multiply the entry points to your thinking. I imagine that these conversations will work cumulatively, taking the reader deeper into each chapter and also showing your way of thinking not by describing it but by exposing the reader to it "in vivo". Part of what your work has offered me personally, which I hope these exchanges will also convey to the reader, is the sheer pleasure of thinking about theory with you- that it's not a stale or inert process but that, on the contrary, it is an experience in itself. - AVGI SAKETOPOULOU

In 1997, the Presses Universitaires de France commissioned DominiqueScarfone for another book for their series Psychanalystes d'aujourd'hui. Theresult was Jean Laplanche, now available in Dorothée Bonnigal-Katz'sbrilliantly clear English translation as "Laplanche: an introduction." More thanan overview of Laplanche's career, Scarfone's text presents an unparalleledinsight into the mechanisms, provocations, and spectacular theoreticalachievements of Laplanche's work, which has been increasingly recognizedas integral to Francophone-and more recently, Anglophone-psychoanalyticpractice and theory.This volume brings together Scarfone's book with two representative worksof Laplanche's writing: his introduction to the French translation of Freud'sBeyond the Pleasure Principle, perhaps the last major work completed beforehis death in 2012; and Fantasme Originaire, Fantasmes des Origines, Originesdu Fantasme , the classic 1964 essay written in collaboration with J.-B.Pontalis, in a new translation by Jonathan House. Finally, this volume includesa complete bibliography of Laplanche's work, in English and in French.Jean Laplanche was described by Radical Philosophy as "the most originaland philosophically informed psychoanalytic theorist of his day." Studyingphilosophy under Hyppolite, Bachelard, and Merleau-Ponty, he became anactive member of the French Resistance under the Vichy regime. Under theinfluence (and treatment) of Jacques Lacan, Laplanche came to earn adoctorate in medicine and was certified as a psychoanalyst. He eventuallybroke ties with Lacan and began regularly publishing influential contributionsto psychoanalytic theory, his first volume appearing in 1961. In 1967 hepublished, with his colleague J.-B. Pontalis, the celebrated encyclopaedia TheLanguage of Psychoanalysis. Member of the International PsychoanalyticAssociation, co-founder of the Association Psychanalytique de France,emeritus professor and founder of the Center for Psychoanalytic Research atthe Université de Paris VII, and assistant professor at the Sorbonne, he alsooversaw, as scientific director, the translation of Freud's complete oeuvre intoFrench for the Presses Universitaires de France.