Jean Laplanche facts for kids

Jean Laplanche (born June 21, 1924 – died May 6, 2012) was a French writer, a psychoanalyst, and even a winemaker. A psychoanalyst is a type of therapist who helps people understand their thoughts and feelings by exploring their unconscious mind.

Laplanche is well-known for his ideas about how people develop their minds and feelings, especially during childhood. He wrote many books about psychoanalytic theory, which is the study of the human mind and how it works. One journal called him "the most original and philosophically informed psychoanalytic theorist of his day."

From 1988 until he passed away, Laplanche helped translate all of Sigmund Freud's works from German into French. Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis.

Life Story

Early Years

Jean Laplanche grew up in the Côte-d'Or region of France. When he was a teenager, he was part of a group called Catholic Action, which worked for social justice.

In the 1940s, Laplanche studied philosophy at a famous school called the École Normale Supérieure. He learned from important thinkers like Gaston Bachelard. During World War II, in 1943, Laplanche joined the French Resistance. This was a secret group that fought against the German occupation of France.

After the war, in 1946–47, he spent a year at Harvard University in the United States. There, he became very interested in psychoanalytic theory. When he returned to France, Laplanche started learning from a famous psychoanalyst named Jacques Lacan. Lacan encouraged Laplanche to study medicine. Laplanche eventually became a doctor and then a psychoanalyst himself. He joined the International Psychoanalytical Association, a worldwide group for psychoanalysts.

Laplanche also stayed involved in politics. In 1948, he helped start a group called Socialisme ou Barbarie (Socialism or Barbarism).

Later Years

Winemaking in Pommard

For many years, Jean Laplanche and his wife, Nadine, ran a French vineyard called Chateau de Pommard. A vineyard is a farm where grapes are grown to make wine.

Chateau de Pommard is a large winery in Burgundy, France. It has the longest continuous vineyard in the Côte-d'Or area. The Laplanches lived on the estate and made wine for a long time. In 2003, they sold the vineyard, but they continued to live there and help with the winemaking for a while. Their wine was even advertised as "the only wine in the world grown and bottled by an old disciple of Lacan's."

Jean and Nadine Laplanche were interviewed about both wine and psychoanalysis in a documentary film called The Gleaners and I. Nadine Laplanche passed away in 2010, and Jean Laplanche died two years later in 2012.

A Respected Psychoanalyst and Teacher

Jean Laplanche was one of the people who helped create the Association Psychanalytique de France (French Psychoanalytic Association) in 1964. He was also its president from 1969 to 1971.

Laplanche received special honorary doctorates from several universities around the world, including the University of Lausanne and the University of Buenos Aires. He also won the Mary S. Sigourney Award in 1995, which is a very important award for psychoanalysts. In 1990, he was made a Knight of Arts and Letters, a special honor in France.

Jean Laplanche was a professor at the University of Paris from 1970 to 1993. He helped start the teaching of psychoanalysis at the university and made it a strong area for research. He guided many students who went on to teach psychoanalysis in France and other parts of the world, especially in Latin America.

His Work

Jean Laplanche published his first book in 1961. The next year, he was invited to teach at the Sorbonne, a famous university. After that, Laplanche regularly published new works.

In 1967, he worked with his colleague Jean-Bertrand Pontalis to publish The Language of Psycho-Analysis. This book became a very important reference guide, almost like a dictionary, for psychoanalysis. It was translated into English in 1973 and is still used today.

His ideas and discussions from his teaching seminars were published in a seven-volume series called Problématiques. Many of his most important essays can be found in his book La révolution copernicienne inachevée (The Unfinished Copernican Revolution), published in 1992.

The Unfinished Copernican Revolution

Laplanche's book "The Unfinished Copernican Revolution" talks about the "object" of psychoanalysis, which is the unconscious mind. He used the idea of a "Copernican Revolution" to explain how psychoanalysis changed our understanding of the mind, much like how Nicolaus Copernicus changed our understanding of the universe by showing that the Earth revolves around the Sun, not the other way around. Laplanche believed that psychoanalysis still had more to discover about the unconscious.

See also

• Afterwardsness