Transference in Institutional Work with Psychosis and Autism

This short, concise but dense book has the double merit of highlighting the essential aspects of post-war French psychiatry, and of giving us the hope of seeing it re-emerge from its quasi abandonment. The book focuses on the institution Francois Tosquelles set up in its initial form at Saint Alban: the transferential constellation. Pierre Delion defines it as 'the whole diversity of people involved in caring for a patient with an archaic pathology'. The concept of 'archaic pathologies' was the foothold needed to introduce the transferential relation into a context of psychosis. Its extension to archaic pathologies, in adults and in children, was implemented gradually through 'multireferential transference' (Tosquelles) and the 'dissociated transference' (Jean Oury). In the last chapter, the author formulates five practical propositions illustrating the psychiatric professional's ethical position: Assuming a 'desiring' position in his work Ensuring the free circulation of individuals Thus, promoting the free circulation of speech. Inventing made-to-measure therapeutic methods for each patient Promoting relative self-management of tools needed to implement psychiatric care Jean-Francois Rey, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Lille, France, and expert on the history of psychiatry This short, concise but dense book has the double merit of highlighting the essential aspects of post-war French psychiatry, and of giving us the hope of seeing it re-emerge from its quasi abandonment. The book focuses on the institution Francois Tosquelles set up in its initial form at Saint Alban: the transferential constellation. Pierre Delion defines it as 'the whole diversity of people involved in caring for a patient with an archaic pathology'. The concept of 'archaic pathologies' was the foothold needed to introduce the transferential relation into a context of psychosis. Its extension to archaic pathologies, in adults and in children, was implemented gradually through 'multireferential transference' (Tosquelles) and the 'dissociated transference' (Jean Oury). In the last chapter, the author formulates five practical propositions illustrating the psychiatric professional's ethical position: Assuming a 'desiring' position in his work Ensuring the free circulation of individuals Thus, promoting the free circulation of speech. Inventing made-to-measure therapeutic methods for each patient Promoting relative self-management of tools needed to implement psychiatric care Jean-Francois Rey, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Lille, France, and expert on the history of psychiatry