ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the reality of the situation of psychoanalysis in France, in relation to the public authorities and the regulation of its practice by the state. It describes the brief account of the history of psychoanalysis in France, because certain contingencies in the attempt to regulate it can only be understood in the light of this history. Jacques Lacan certainly made a significant contribution to the wide dissemination of psychoanalysis in French culture, and also to the considerable increase in the number of psychoanalysts. The Institute was inaugurated in 2003 with a debate, “Why war?” on the eve of the American intervention in Iraq. This Institute provides for ten intersections of psychoanalysis with philosophy, literature, the life sciences, political science, the law, religious studies, and history. The majority of European countries where regulation has been implemented, it has brought nothing positive for psychoanalysis.
