Abstract
This article assesses the public response in France in 2000 to the centenary celebration of the publication of Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams. It argues that the discussions that took place during this event provoked a re-evalution of the status of psychoanalysis in France today. Rather than unsettling psychoanalysis as a cultural institution in France, however, the large volume of commentary produced revealed a general faith in psychoanalysis’s unwavering stability and vitality in the public imagination. Through an analysis of these discussions, this article underscores the ways in which the French public reaction to the celebration serves as an important metric for gauging the cultural stakes at issue when interrogating the future of psychoanalysis in France. Finally, the recent work of J.-B. Pontalis provides one example of a contemporary approach embraced by practising French psychoanalysts to respond to the major vectors of criticism about the profession from other branches of psychology and psychiatry.
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