Basic Rule and Border Walk

The »Gewere« of Psychoanalysis

Abstract

The question of a (non)-relation of psychoanalysis and law requires a deeper analysis, in which their encounter becomes inescapable. The question of an absence of any guarantee is but a faint echo of the legal provision in effect in Germany from 1869 to 1939, allowing anyone to practice medicine without a license. By contrast, Freud’s book on lay analysis, but also some of Lacan’s considerations are marked by an explicit recourse to figures of juridical reflection, which can provide new material for the contestation of the limits imposed on psychoanalytic practices today, too.