Reflections on our foundations: a summary of the Colloquium organised on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Montreal Psychoanalytic Society (Société psychanalytique de Montréal, SPM)
The issues of speech in psychoanalysis (Les enjeux de la parole)
April 5 and 6 2019
In celebration of its fiftieth anniversary, the Montreal Psychoanalytic Society (Société psychanalytique de Montréal, SPM) chose to reflect on the place and function of speech in the analytic cure, particularly with regards to the work of distortion and resistance that link it to underlying sexual and destructive drives. The intention was also to further examine the rapport between our clinical work and psychoanalytic metapsychology.
The colloquium was organized around the work of André Beetschen, former president and until recently scientific secretary of the French Psychoanalytic Association (Association psychanalytique de France, APF). A significant part of Beetschen’s work focuses on the place of infantile sexuality and destructive drives in psychic life and more specifically on the dynamics of psychoanalytic treatment.
The colloquium was organized into three sessions. Each session consisted of a presentation by André Beetschen followed by a presentation on a related topic by a senior analyst from the SPM. A round table discussion introduced by another member of the SPM followed the two presentations and aimed at initiating a dialogue between the two speakers and the audience. The three key note speakers from the SPM were Marie Claire Lanctot Bélanger, Dominique Scarfone and Martin Gauthier. The round table discussions were chaired by Emmanuel Piché, Suzanne Tremblay and Gabriela Legorreta respectively. The format stimulated rich and animated discussions.
The morning session focused on the way the spoken word is treated in psychoanalysis and the base from which it stems. The fundamental rules of free association and free floating attention may indeed hinder the flow of the narrative, fragmenting the story and introducing a deviation between everyday conversations and the spoken word in the psychoanalytic cure. Beyond its manifest content the wandering associative discourse of analysis speaks by means of its slips and failures and through the repetitions that shape it. The wild, untreatable features of infantile sexuality leave their mark on the psychoanalytic session and on what circulates between analyst and patient. During this first set of talks, the speakers followed the path of poetry and dreams as a means of exploring the distinctive role of the spoken word in the psychoanalytic cure. By subverting the manifest meaning of words and images, poetry and dream give access to the unknown within. The notions of a spoken event, poetic or in analysis, of a strange intimacy, of linguistic operation, of presence and detachment were at the heart of the presentations. André Beetschen’s presentation was entitled “The spoken word, the intimate and poetry” (La parole, l’intime et la poésie), it was followed by Marie Claire Lanctot Bélanger’s presentation entitled « Beyond the horizon, the dream » (L’au-delà de l’horizon, le rêve).
The afternoon session focused on the drive dimension of the spoken word. André Beetschen addressed this topic from the perspective of resistance linking it to destructivity and to the absence of structure of the unconscious. Beetschen’s presentation was entitled “The harsh encounter of resistances” (La dure rencontre des résistances). Dominique Scarfone’s presentation “ Drive processes and the spoken word” (Les enjeux pulsionnels de la parole) explored the underlying autopoietic systems and operational barriers making non-destructive interactions between a given system and its environment possible. The dislocation of speech in the psychoanalytic cure allows for the emergence of a different meaning, one that will nonetheless always leave a residue that resists being put into words and is the manifestation of the fleeting nature of the underlying drives. Something beyond language embodies speech and imposes its rhythm, its slips by its repetitions and pauses. Something beyond words leaves its mark on the transference and also acts in the transference.
The third session explored the concept of conviction in psychoanalysis, a concept with a polysemic nature. While a certain degree of conviction supports psychoanalytic work and acts in service of the transference, too much certainty and assurance will impede the fundamental psychic work of the psychoanalytic cure. Conviction reflects the work done by the patient and the analyst, contributing to the emergence of a sense of truth that is inevitably confronted by doubt. The notion of conviction in the cure cannot be addressed without reflecting upon the psychoanalytic method, which stands as a radical critique in indirect opposition to the contemporary emphasis on “evidence-based practice” and challenges us in our sense of certainty and faith. The concept of conviction also relates to the intimate relationship each analyst has with psychoanalytic theory and with Freud. For this third session André Beetschen’s presentation was entitled “Conviction and ending analysis” (La fin de la cure et la conviction), while Martin Gauthier’s talk was entitled evidence in support of the cure (Pièces à conviction).
The round table discussions at the end of each session allowed for lively, stimulating exchanges between the speakers and the audience.
In focusing on these questions on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary, the SPM chose to rework the fundamental elements of the psychoanalytic approach: psychic reality and the spoken word in the cure. The proceedings of the Colloquium will be published so that participants and others will have the opportunity to read and refer to the presentations as well as the discussions that transpired. The proceedings will include the complete presentations of each of the speakers, the commentary by the round table animators as well as the transcripts of all exchanges between speakers and the audience.
Translated from the French original by Mariana Gil Rodriguez and Cheryl Jacobson