L’Année Psychanalytique Internationale 2019
Rédactrice responsable: Céline Gür Gressot (Email: c.gurgressot@bluewin.ch)
Secrétaire: Jean-Michel Quinodoz
Membres: Jacques Boulanger (France), Jenny Chan (France), Danielle Goldstein(France), Maria Hovagemyan (Suisse), Luc Magnenat (Suisse), Marie-Pascale Paccolat (Suisse), Régine Prat(France), Michel Sanchez-Cardenas (France), Patricia Waltz (Suisse)
Les auteurs: Fred Busch, Maria Grazia Oldoini, Thomas Hartung, Michael Steinbrecher, Brett H. Clarke, Maria Rhode, Rachel B. Blass, Jean-Michel Quinodoz, Jay Greenberg, Kay M. Long.
Publisher: www.inpress.fr
Annual website: www.frannuel.org
Introduction to the French Annual of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis
L’Année Psychanalytique Internationale (www.frannual.org) has appeared yearly since 2003. It was the first published as the European Annual of The International Journal of Psychoanalysis. It is now published by In Press (Paris) with the support of the Centre de Psychanalyse de la Suisse Romande. Céline Gür Gressot is the current Editor-in-Chief and Jean-Michel Quinodoz its Secretary. The committee has about twelve members representing France, the French speaking region of Switzerland, Belgium and Canada. We meet twice a year to select the articles.
The committee members attach great importance to their meetings, which have established a ‘work group’ mentality in Bion’s sense. A fairly constant Francophone editorial team, with gradual changes in appointments, has therefore united around a common project, beyond geographical and linguistic differences and theoretical affiliations.
Translating and/or betraying?
Choosing around twelve articles from the hundred or so that appear every year in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis requires a great deal of time, attention and skill from the editorial committee members. The first stage involves each member familiarising himself with all the Journal papers to form an opinion. No doubt there can be few Journal readers who, like the Annuals’ committee members, have read most of its articles so conscientiously! When the committee has made its selection, it then has to choose which of its members will translate it and which member will re-read the translation in collaboration with its translator. At this stage it would not be possible suddenly to act as translator. In fact, it is not enough to speak or read a language fluently; a definite command of the languages is indispensable for translating psychoanalytic texts from English or another language, in our case into French.
Selection criteria
In general, our first criterion is to select articles that demonstrate how the psychoanalyst works. This choice is regularly confirmed to us by our readers, who express a definite preference for texts in which the author persuasively connects theory and clinical practice. Another objective is to achieve a fair distribution between authors from North America, South America, Europe and other geographical regions. We also like their articles to represent as far as possible the variety of contemporary psychoanalytic approaches, in order to present our readers with the wide range of theoretical approaches and clinical methods that characterise psychoanalysis today, each contributing its share of originality. Finally, subjective criteria evidently play a major role in the selection process. From this perspective, the editor/translator’s enjoyment in reading an article, as well as thinking about translating it, often plays a decisive role.
‘Return’ to mother tongue
Translating for an Annual highlights the role played by the mother tongue in transmitting psychoanalysis. This explains the benefit of a ‘return’ from the English into the mother tongue. In psychoanalysis probably more than in other subjects, the transmission of knowledge goes well beyond the communication of a knowledge that appeals essentially to the intellect: transmitting psychoanalysis is a process closely associated with the affective world of our childhood, consisting of sensations, smells, impressions, feelings and sensory and bodily memories. In other words, just as a poem’s flavour is fully appreciated when it is received in the mother tongue, so a psychoanalytic text takes on its full flavour when it is received in the mother tongue.
Translation issues
On several occasions the translators of L’Année psychanalytique internationale have encountered sometimes substantial terminological differences between the French used in France, in Belgium, in Switzerland and in Quebec. French is in fact far from being a standardised language, used identically in the various Francophone regions.
Sharing our experiences with the other Annuals
All the Annual editors regularly share their experiences at regional and international congresses and conferences. In spite of the language and cultural diversity, and beyond terminological variations, sharing experiences is proving to be productive for everyone concerned.
Jean-Michel Quinodoz