MAUCO, GEORGES (1899-1988)

Georges Mauco, housemaster in the Seine school for elementary school teachers, educationist, demographer, and psychoanalyst, was born in Paris on April 16, 1899, and died there on May 18, 1988. The son of a waiter who later became a landowner, he was reared in the country by an agricultural laborer. He was mobilized in the Armée de l'Orient in 1918 and left the army in 1920 as maréchal des logis (the approximate equivalent of a sergeant). He graduated with a bachelor's degree in history and commenced analysis with René Laforgue.

His thesis, Les étrangers en France: Leur rôle dans la vieéconomique (Foreigners in France: Their role in economic life) was published in 1932. Although he argued in favor of integration, he claimed that Asians, Africans, and Levantines were unassimilable. In 1937 he wrote a paper recommending that the Israelites be sent to the countryside. This project was rejected even though it was proposed to the government while he was a member of the committee for the French population in Léon Blum's cabinet.

He was demobilized in 1940 and collaborated on the journal Ethnie française (The French ethnic group), run by Georges Montandon, a well-known anti-Semite. While under oath in the Supreme Court (during the Riom trial), he affirmed that foreign Jews in France were one of the major causes of defeat in 1940.

He escaped the purges after the war. With the support of General Charles de Gaulle, who appointed him secretary of the High Commission for the Population and the Family, he created the first psychoeducational consultancy in the Lycée Claude-Bernard in Paris. Many psychoanalysts worked there as consultants and analysts.

A believer in the right to be different, after 1946 he devoted considerable energy to defending children against adults, psychologists against doctors, the youth of 1968 against the bourgeoisie, and women's liberation. He defended Margaret Clark-Williams, a colleague of Claude-Bernard, when she was attacked by the Medical Association. In 1953, along with Didier Anzieu, he founded the Union of Psychoanalysts and Psychologists.

He recovered from leukemia in 1956 after a stay at high altitudes. He wrote an article in L'Express recounting this experience and denouncing the high priests of medical knowledge. His last book, published in 1977, was devoted to the question of foreigners. It studied racism and the unconscious responsibility of victims of racism.

Jean-Pierre Bourgeron

See also: Centre psychopédagogique Claude-Bernard; Clark-Williams, Margaret; France; Société française de psychanalyse.

Bibliography

Mauco, Georges. (1932). Les étrangers en France: Leur rôle dans la vie économique. Paris: Armand Colin.

——. (1975). L'évolution de la psychopédagogie. Toulouse, France: Pragma-Privat.

——. (1977). Les étrangers en France et le problème du racisme. Paris: La pensée universelle.

——. (1982). Vécu 1899-1982. Paris:Émile Paul.

RoudinescoÉlisabeth. (1995, Fall). Georges Mauco, 1899-1988, un psychanalyste au service de Vichy: De l'antisémitismeà la psychopédagogie. L'infini, 51, 73-84.