ABSTRACT
Let us now talk about the connections between psychoanalysis and politics, Certain psychoanalysts maintain that it is incompatible for a psychoanalyst who works in the calm and privacy of his consulting room, with its rules whose importance you have reminded us of (and which, even if they are being softened, nonetheless remain the fundamental rules that every self-respecting psychoanalyst must observe)—that it is therefore incompatible for him to take an active and public interest in anything other than his work. How can a psychoanalyst be a citizen? Can he be a militant citizen, belong to a party, attend political meetings, or on occasion demonstrate his opinions in the 100street? This problem has been raised by several people in your own line of business whom I have met—including Luce Irigaray, so as to hide nothing from you—who gets up, with the tone of voice that you know, and with the passion that she puts into it, to try to demystify this sacrosanct, set-apart, non-engaged role that the psychoanalyst has always reserved for himself.
