The French model at work: indication and the Jean Favreau Centre for Consultation and Treatment

The goal of this paper is to present the way in which an analyst trained in the French Model at the Paris Psychoanalytical Society and working at its policlinic, the Jean Favreau Centre for Consultation and Treatment (CCTP), approaches the question of indication. After a brief examination of Freud ’s 1905 text on indication I will discuss certain concepts, such as representation and tertiary processes, which form the basis of our listening to today’s patients. After presenting certain elements of the French Model I will then discuss a period which was a turning point in French psychoanalysis. Psychodrama, a psychoanalytically inspired treatment modality developed in France, which is useful when the capacity to represent is limited will be introduced. Two clinical illustrations of consultations at the CCTP will then follow.