|
Textes en ligne © aiep - 8 décembre 2006 - www.clinique-transculturelle.org
Pour citer cet article :
In honor of Serge Lebovici
I would like to start from what we have inherited from Serge Lebovici, whom we got to know in 1989 in the Faculty of Medicine in Bobigny, in the northern suburbs of Paris, and in Avicenne hospital where I have the good fortune of being in charge of managing the department he created. Serge Lebovici, or the art of caring for the most vulnerable infants It is in 1978 that Serge Lebovici, when appointed Professor in pedopsychiatry in Bobigny Faculty of Medicine, created the department of psychopathology in Avicenne Hospital, which he left in 1984. It was here that he developed and diffused worldwide his psychoanalytical approach to the infant with its parents, and his theory and methods of exploration concerning mother-infant interactions, thus making a resounding contribution to the reputation of Bobigny Faculty of Medicine (Paris 13 University) and its teaching hospital. As a psychoanalyst, he made innovations within the discipline by gathering clinicians from very diverse backgrounds in his department to cater for infants, children, adolescents and their parents from widely different social and cultural environments. He also created a unit to cater for substance abusers, and an emergency or psychiatric liaison unit. He took an interest in everything. Thanks to this wide horizon, he enabled a population that does not usually have the benefit of psychoanalytical care to gain access to it. He also had the idea, more than twenty-five years ago, of a transcultural psychiatric consultation unit for migrants, the first in the world. To implement this, he called on Tobie Nathan. In all his hospital activities, he developed his technique of the psychiatric consultation based on empathy, which was one of his very strong points. He described this empathy as “metaphorising”, meaning that it is able to generate images that are good for both patient and therapist. He entertained a real passion for the therapeutic alliance with patients, young and old, but also with the therapists working with him, whom he trained in these skills. This inheritance is for us to preserve so that it can endure, and that in Avicenne the name of Serge Lebovici will remain that of a great master who has left his mark on several generations of psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and students. The unusual encounter Just to show his welcoming attitude towards young people : I had just arrived in Paris to specialise in child psychiatry. I had come to work and conduct research with him. I met him in a corridor in the university and asked if I could see him. He gave me an appointment for the following Sunday at 6 a.m.. At the appointed time, I rang his door bell, and he opened the door and said “They don’t usually turn up !” The relationship was established from then on. I set out my research theme on the vulnerability of the children of migrants, which he enthusiastically accepted, saying “Only you can conduct this research, so get on with it fast”. I left to start work, and I am still working on it. The concept of transgenerational transmission This is a very rich and very popular concept. It is often quoted, sometimes in a rather watered-down form. It is to the concept as Serge Lebovici set it out that we are going to return, above all in images. These are just a few words of introduction and we will then see and hear him defining and using it. The tree of life “Each of us carries with them a transgenerational mandate : we could say that our “tree of life” has its roots in the earth irrigated by the blood that flows from the wounds caused by the childhood conflicts of our parents. Yet these roots can enable the tree of life to flourish so long as they are not buried too deep in the earth and thus inaccessible. Generally – anfortunately – filiation, which carries the marks of neurotic conflict, does not stand in the way of cultural affiliation” (Lebovici, 1995, p.5). The child’s tree of life, or the mandate given him in transgenerational transmission, thus brings the generation of his grandparents into his mental (psychological ?) life through the childhood conflicts of his parents, whether these are pre-conscious or repressed. More immediate conflict, and in particular trauma, can also become part of this tree of life, and these events may of course subsequently give meaning to conflict or trauma in childhood. When the burden of transmission is too great, and the translation too direct, for the child the filiation is converted into a “pathology of destiny”. Then there are “ghosts in the children’s bedroom” (Fraiberg, 1999). These ghosts are visitors that arise from the parents’ forgotten past, ghosts that have not been “invited to the christening”. In favourable circumstances, they are chased from the child’s bedroom and return underground. But in certain unfavourable contexts, these representations of the past in the present invade the living space, settle there, and seriously affect the relationship between mother and infant. This is where the therapeutic challenge arises : creating, jointly creating with the mother and those around her, and with the child as an active partner in the interaction, the conditions that will enable the identification of these ghosts ; and rather than actually chasing them away, negotiating with them, in a sense, and humanising them. Yet again, we have the challenge of making something human out of trauma. Conclusion Yes indeed, Lebovici was an outstanding figure for me, for us, for all our community. We must continue his work, and try to reach all young children and their parents, whatever their colour, their vulnerability or their needs. Films and bibliography in :
* Professsor of child and adolescent psychiatry, University of Paris, Chief of the Department of child psychiatry, Avicenne Hospital, Bobigny, France. |
|---|
