François Perrier (; 25 July 1922 – 2 August 1990) was a French doctor, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst. Perrier played a prominent role in

Lacanianism Lacanianism or Lacanian psychoanalysis is a theoretical system initiated by the work of Jacques Lacan from the 1950s to the 1980s. It is a theoretical approach that attempts to explain the mind, behaviour, and culture through a structuralist and ...

and in

post-Lacanian Lacanianism or Lacanian psychoanalysis is a theoretical system initiated by the work of Jacques Lacan from the 1950s to the 1980s. It is a theoretical approach that attempts to explain the mind, behaviour, and culture through a structuralist and ...

psychoanalysis. He was born and died in Paris.

Career

Perrier studied medicine and psychiatry in Paris; and became a psychoanalyst after a first analysis with Maurice Bouvet, a second with Sasha Nacht, and a third with Jacques Lacan. As a Lacanian, he became one of the so-called 'three musketeers' of leading disciples, to be known as the 'troika':

Serge Leclaire Serge Leclaire (; born Serge Liebschutz; 6 July 1924 – 8 August 1994) was a French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. Initially analyzed by Jacques Lacan, he 'became the first French " Lacanian"'. Subsequently, he developed into 'one of the most re ...

, Wladimir Granoff and François Perrier. Perrier was called by

Élisabeth Roudinesco Élisabeth Roudinesco (; born 10 September 1944) is a French scholar, historian and psychoanalyst. She conducts a seminar on the history of psychoanalysis at the École Normale Supérieure. Roudinesco's work focuses mainly on psychiatry, psycholo ...

"the wandering

troubadour A troubadour (, ; ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female equivalent is usually called a ''trobairitz''. The tr ...

of Lacanianism, naive and passionate, as whimsical as his master (whose genius he lacked), but a prodigious theorist of female sexuality, hysteria, and love". In a more critical judgement, linking his obsessive

father complex Father complex in psychology is a complex—a group of unconscious associations, or strong unconscious impulses—which specifically pertains to the image or archetype of the father. These impulses may be either positive (admiring and seeking out ...

to his ambivalent search for a psychoanalytic master, she also considered him to have frittered away his career "between presumptiousness and aimlessness".

Psychoanalytic politics

After belonging to the

Société psychanalytique de Paris The Paris Psychoanalytical Society (SPP) is the oldest psychoanalytical organisation in France. Founded with Freud’s endorsement in 1926, the S.P.P. is a component member of the International Psychoanalytical Association (I.P.A.) as well as of t ...

, Perrier took part in the creation of the

Société Française de Psychanalyse The Société Française de Psychanalyse (SFP; English: "French Society of Psychoanalysis") was a French psychoanalytic professional body formed in 1953, in a split from the main body of French psychoanalysts, the Société Parisienne de Psychanal ...

(S.F.P.) in 1953. Together with Granoff, and Leclaire, in the early 1960s Perrier attempted to have the SFP acknowledged formally by the

International Psychoanalytical Association The International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) is an association including 12,000 psychoanalysts as members and works with 70 constituent organizations. It was founded in 1910 by Sigmund Freud, from an idea proposed by Sándor Ferenczi. His ...

(IPA). After the failure of their efforts, it was at Perrier's house, in the presence of Jacques Lacan and Nathalie Zaltzman, his ex-wife, that the founding of the Ecole Freudienne de Paris took place in 1964. Perrier was the first to resign from the board of the new institution, in 1966, over the question of training; and in 1969, in what has been called the third schism in French psychoanalytic history, he, along with Piera Aulagnier, Jean-Paul Valabrega, and (a minority of) others broke away from the EFP to set up a fourth group: the Organisation psychanalytique de langue francaise (OPFL). The first president of the Quatrième Groupe, Perrier would eventually resign from it in 1981. Perrier came to conclude that Jacques Lacan was "a troublemaker of genius"; and that his followers were "travellers in the realm of 'Translacania'", as he would call it.

Letter to Lacan

Roudinesco highlighted for critical attention a letter he wrote to Lacan in 1965, shortly after the EFP was formed:Roudinesco, (1997) p. 318 Unfortunately, for all the acuteness of Perrier's diagnosis of the organisational impasse Lacan's personality would create, he had no solution, other than his eventual departure for the Fourth Group.

Work

Perrier produced a large body of work, ranging from

phobia A phobia is an anxiety disorder, defined by an irrational, unrealistic, persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are usually present for more than six months. Those affected ...

(1956),

psychosis In psychopathology, psychosis is a condition in which a person is unable to distinguish, in their experience of life, between what is and is not real. Examples of psychotic symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized or inco ...

(1956 and after), and

erotomania Erotomania, also known as de Clérambault's syndrome, is a relatively uncommon paranoia, paranoid condition that is characterized by an individual's delusions of another person being infatuation, infatuated with them. It is listed in the DSM-5 as ...

(1966), to alcoholism and female sexuality, while also contributing to the question of the training analysis (1969). On erotomania, Perrier made a link between the early observations of Clérambault and Lacan's later work. He saw motherhood as a way for female sexuality to live out its disturbances, but also as an opportunity to work through them. In a witty formulation on love and childhood, Perrier argued that "what kills childhood is knowledge; what kills love is knowledge. Yet...there is no true love except in the aptitude of a subject, or two subjects, to return to childhood".A Dufourmantelle/C. Porter, ''Blind Date'' (2007) p. 31

Writings

# L'Amour, Ed.: Hachette Pluriel, 1998, # La Chaussée d'Antin : Oeuvre psychanalytique I, Ed.: Albin Michel, 2008, # La Chaussée d'Antin : Oeuvre psychanalytique II, Ed.: Albin Michel, 2008, # Les corps malades du signifiant: séminaires 1971–1972. Paris: InterÉditions (1984) # Double lecture: le transubjectal: séminaires 1973–1974. Paris: InterÉditions (1985) Perrier, François; and Granoff, Vladimir. (1960). Le désir et le féminin. Paris: Aubier.

References