Abstract
The “new psychic economy” is a concept of Charles Melman, who passed away in 2022. A French psychoanalyst and one of the principal followers of Lacan, Melman’s new psychic economy was his way of trying to explain the social changes of recent decades and their consequences, mainly in the field of psychoanalytic clinics. This paper is also inspired by other works, in particular those of the Belgian psychoanalyst Jean-Pierre Lebrun, a member of the Association Lacanienne Internationale, the school founded by Melman. His central argument is that the social link is submitted to a neoliberal requirement of unlimited pleasure that prevents symbolic castration from being functional.
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Notes
Marcel Gauchet is a French historian and sociologist, disciple of Claude Lefort, Director of Studies emeritus at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Centre de recherches politiques Raymond Aron), and former editor-in-chief of the journal Le Débat, one of France’s leading intellectual journals, which he founded with Pierre Nora in 1980 and which ceased publication in 2020.
Lyotard was an active supporter of the Marxist-oriented movement “Socialisme ou Barbarie” with Cornelius Castoriadis, Guy Debord, Jean Laplanche, Claude Lefort, Pierre Soury and many others.
On this topic, see the article in this tribute on Charles Melman’s concept of the party wall phenomenon (Dimitriadis & Thibierge, in press) and issues 51 and 52 of the Journal Français de Psychiatrie, “Le mur mitoyen dans la clinique des psychoses” (The party wall in the psychosis clinic), both published in 2023.
On the topic of the failure to diagnosis a condition during prenatal checks, see issue 17 of the Journal Français de Psychiatrie, “L’arrêt Perruche ou les problèmes posés par la biologie au droit” (The Perruche decision or the legal problems posed by biology), which was published in 2002.
In Civilisation and Its Discontents, Freud (1930/1961) argued that the “psychological misery of the masses” is most dangerous where the social bond is created mainly through the identification of participants with each other, while the individuality of the leaders does not acquire the degree of importance required for the creation of the mass. He saw American civilisation as an example of this dangerous mode of mass creation.
Colette Soler was in conversation with Melman during the congress on the end of analysis held in Paris as part of the winter seminar of the International Lacanian Association, 27–28 February 2012. Details of the dialogue taken from personal notes.
Atopia is derived from the Greek άτποία, which means “what has no designated place”.
In January 1964, Octave Mannoni (2003) published an article in Les Temps modernes in which he set out his thoughts on the workings of belief and denial, conceptualised by Freud but considered marginal themes in psychoanalysis. He examines the commonplace expression “Je sais bien, mais quand même …” (I know well, but all the same …), placing it at the heart of the issues surrounding the Freudian term Verleugnung (“denial of reality”).
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Clémence Sebag has translated the article and all the quotations from authors writing in French.
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Dimitriadis, Y. The “new psychic economy” according to Charles Melman. Psychoanal Cult Soc 29, 75–89 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-023-00423-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-023-00423-3