Psychoanalysis versus University: Origins and Destinies of a Conjunction

Abstract

This article examines the complex relationship between psychoanalysis and the university from its origins. Starting from the foundational link between Freud and the academic world, it traces how psychoanalysis was born within academic culture but later distanced itself in pursuit of autonomous training. Through the analysis of the concept of Bildung and the tensions between encyclopedic knowledge and the knowledge of the unconscious, it addresses the specificity of metapsychological knowledge. It also reviews Freud’s critical stance toward the university and the challenges of incorporating psychoanalysis into the modern academic structure. Lacan offers a key perspective by positioning the university as a discourse, distinct from the analytic discourse. The text concludes by emphasizing the value of a critical insertion of psychoanalysis into the university, as a necessary guest capable of renewing the culture of knowledge without abandoning its epistemic and clinical uniqueness.