PIPOL News Flash 15: Some questions posed to Mitra Kadivar

PIPOL NEWS FLASH 15 – EuroFederation of Psychoanalysis

Lacan Quotidien 333  - Tuesday June 18^th 2013

Translated by Francine Danniau

Meeting Mitra Kadivar in Paris, towards Brussels

Mitra Kadivar was the guest of the ECF, The School of the Freudian Cause on June the 15^th for a “Meeting with Mitra – Five months after”. She made herself heard on her career, her position, her determination to pursue her actions so that more value will be given to Psychoanalysis in Iran, on her optimism for her country, during a two hour discussion with the audience, led by Jean-Daniel Matet, director of the ECF. The meeting was also attended by  “La règle du jeu” and “Lacan Quotidien”.

She will intervene at the Congress Pipol 6 (title of her paper: “A Superb Self-Reliance”) of the Eurofederation of Psychoanalysis in Brussels on the 6^th and 7^th of July, “After Oedipus, Women are conjugated in the future”.

Pipol News asked Anne Poumellec to ask Mitra some questions.

 

In your country, the elections to the presidency are taking place today. How do you see the future of your country?

One must know, concerning my country, what in France is in general mostly ignored, that the Other of Iran is never where you expect him to be. Everything is unpredictable in Iran, this country never meets the expectations and, what happens most of the time is a good surprise. Yesterday, I ran to vote at the Iranian Embassy in Paris. We now see the moderate candidate being ahead of the others: nobody expected this.

[At the end of the afternoon we learned, against all odds, that the moderate candidate had won the elections in the first round. “Many things will change” Mitra Kadivar commented, pointing out that this reformer favorites the NGOs activities]

Psychoanalysis to you, was it an encounter?

My choice as a little girl had been science and medicine, with the idea to specialize in psychiatry. But my encounter with Freud, with Freud’s texts, which I read in the excellent Standard Edition, was overwhelming: I absolutely had to follow Freud. After a first stay in France, I came back determined to start my analysis, which lasted ten years, in Paris. My analyst being a Lacanian, much later, he happened to send me the transcript of the course of Jacques-Alain Miller, “The Lacanian Orientation”: In it I recognized the existence of a teaching – I had not found the like elsewhere. What remains crucial to me is the forced choice of Freud, in no way one can separate me from Freud, what I call my Freudian trap.
At the end of my analysis, back in Teheran, I could have, by preference, continued the scientific research and studied Freud at the same time. Noticing the ignorance of the Other pushed me to teach, to make  Freud  known in Iran through his texts.

What is the importance of Psychoanalysis in Teheran? More precisely, what is the importance of Psychoanalysis of the Lacanian Orientation? Does she have a place at the university, in the institutions of care, in places where formation is given? Could you describe to us your activities of transmitting psychoanalysis in Iran?

On my return to Iran, twenty years ago, after my training by means of my personal analysis in Paris, with a Lacanian analyst, I found all academics, psychiatrists, psychologists, etc…pretended to practice psychoanalysis without having been analyzed themselves. People also said they were analyzed by the mere fact of having followed seven sessions of any practice using speech.
I understood that I needed to start talking of what a psychoanalysis is about and thus I started to teach. Till today I have to fight against what is called “wild” psychoanalysis. I rely on the writings of Freud, on my analysis and my knowledge of Lacan. The three dimensions (the Real, Symbolic and Imaginary) defined by Jacques Lacan, clarify psychoanalysis and prevent derailments left by the post Freudian imaginary concepts.Together with my students, we again go through the texts of Freud, and step by step, we translate, which pushes us to thoroughly research all nuances offered to us by the Persian language.
To accommodate this work, I managed to make an association recognized, as a public utility, with the status of a NGO: The Freudian Association.
This association is a place of teaching – mine and that of my students, it is also the place to lodge the office of my practice, in particular the welcoming of new analysands – often of students too, I call it the “recruitment”.
The project is to add to this a center for treating the psychological dependency of drug addicts. A place for applied psychoanalysis, where my students could demonstrate the effectiveness of psychoanalysis, in comparison with all current practices in Teheran, fast, but often failing in the end.

The women in Iran, what can you say about them?

The history of Iran is very old and its conversion to the Shiite Islam only occupies about the last quarter of that history. Pre-Islamic influences (Zoroastrian and Mithraism) are very strong in the country. The women don’t have the same status as in the Arabian countries where the influence of the Sunni Islam is extended. In Iran, I can assure you, culture and knowledge are very much validated, which explains my privileged place in that country.