Jean Laplanche

Jean Laplanche (21 June 1924 – 6 May 2012) was a French author, psychoanalyst and winemaker.

Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development and Sigmund Freud's seduction theory, and wrote more than a dozen books on psychoanalytic theory.

The journal Radical Philosophy described him as "the most original and philosophically informed psychoanalytic theorist of his day."

Laplanche attended the École Normale Supérieure in the 1940s, studying philosophy.

He was a student of Jean Hyppolite, Gaston Bachelard and Maurice Merleau-Ponty.

In 1943, during the Vichy regime, Laplanche joined the French Resistance, and was active in Paris and Bourgogne.

In 1946–47, he visited Harvard University for a year.

Instead of joining that university's philosophy department, he instead studied at the Department of Social Relations, and became interested in psychoanalytic theory.

After returning to France, Laplanche began attending lectures and undergoing psychoanalytic treatment under Jacques Lacan.

Laplanche, advised by Lacan, began studying medicine, and eventually earned his doctorate and became an analyst himself, joining the International Psychoanalytical Association, of which he remained a member until his death.

Laplanche continued his political activity.

In 1948, Laplanche was one of the founding members of the organization Socialisme ou Barbarie (Socialism or Barbarism) after breaking with Trotskyism, but notes that the group's "atmosphere soon became impossible", due to the influence of Cornelius Castoriadis, who "exerted hegemony over the journal."

Laplanche published his first book in 1961.

The following year, he was invited to a position at the Sorbonne by Daniel Lagache.

Since then, Laplanche maintained a regular publication schedule.

Jean Laplanche was one of the founders of the Association Psychanalytique de France (1964) and served also as its president in 1969–1971.

He was later an honorary member of this Association with Jean-Bertrand Pontalis and Guy Rosolato.

Together with colleague Jean-Bertrand Pontalis, Laplanche in 1967 published The Language of Psycho-Analysis, which has become a standard encyclopedic reference on psychoanalysis.

Nevertheless, Laplanche remained "in favour of the thesis of Socialisme ou Barbarie" until 1968.

Laplanche for many years ran Chateau de Pommard, a French vineyard, together with his wife Nadine.

Chateau de Pommard is a 50 acre winery in Burgundy, and has the longest continuous vineyard in the Côte-d'Or region.

The Laplanches lived on the estate and made wine for a number of years.

Laplanche was president of the Association Psychoanalytique de France from 1969 to 1971, being succeeded by Pontalis.

Jean Laplanche was an Emeritus Professor of the University of Paris, where he taught from 1970 until 1993: he introduced the teaching of psychoanalysis in the "U.F.R. des Sciences Humaines Cliniques" in Paris VII and brought it to the level of research.

It was translated into English in 1973, and its thirteenth French edition was published in 1997.

He supervised theses of students, who are now teaching "psychoanalysis in the university" (title of the research-review founded by Jean Laplanche: 1975–1994) in France and elsewhere in the world (especially in Latin America).

Laplanche was granted honorary doctorates from the University of Lausanne (1986), the University of Buenos Aires, and the University of Athens.

One of his major contributions to psychoanalysis consists of the théorie de la séduction généralisée (theory of the general seduction, 1987).

From 1988 to his death, Laplanche was the scientific director of the German to French translation of Freud's complete works (Oeuvres Complètes de Freud / Psychanalyse – OCF.P) in the Presses Universitaires de France, in association with André Bourguignon, Pierre Cotet and François Robert.

Laplanche grew up in the Côte d'Or region of France.

In his adolescence he was active in Catholic Action, a left-wing social justice organization.

Laplanche was also made a Knight of Arts and Letters in 1990.

His seminars have been published in the seven volume Problématiques series while many of his most important essays are found in La révolution copernicienne inachevée (1992).

He was the winner of the Mary S. Sigourney Award (1995).

In 2003, the couple sold the estate to new owners.

The deal included an agreement that the Laplanches would remain on the estate and continue for some time to participate in the winemaking process.

Their wine has been advertised as "the only wine in the world grown and bottled by an old disciple of Lacan's."

Laplanche and his wife were interviewed, about both wine and psychoanalysis, in Agnès Varda's documentary The Gleaners and I.

Nadine Laplanche died in spring 2010.

Jean Laplanche seemed to live exclusively in Pommard until his death two years later.