REVERCHON-JOUVE, BLANCHE (1879-1974)

Blanche Reverchon-Jouve was a French physician and psychoanalyst, a member of the Société psychanalytique de Paris and the Société française de psychanalyse, and a translator of Freud. She was born in 1879 and died January 8, 1974.

She studied in France, and later specialized in neurology under Babinski. She practiced psychiatry in Geneva and was one of the women celebrated in La Garçonne (Margeuritte, 1922). In 1921 she met the poet Pierre Jean Jouve. She and Jouve were invited by Stefan Zweig to participate in two of the conferences he gave in Salzburg. In 1923, after traveling to Bavaria, they began living together in Paris. They were married in 1925, following Jouve's divorce.

Reverchon-Jouve was analyzed by Eugénie Sokolnicka and became a member of the Société psychanalytique de Paris. She appears on the 1932 list as an associate member, then on a second, corrected list as a full member.

In 1923 Gallimard published Trois essais sur la théorie de la sexualité by Sigmund Freud, a translation she completed with the help of Bernard Groethuysen. With Jouve she wrote an article for the Nouvelle Revue Française of 1933 entitled "Moments d'une psychanalyse." Although a clinical study, it did not resemble those published by her peers. It was the work of an analyst and writer, and its formal beauty as literature casts doubt on the authenticity of the narrative.

On February 3, 1931, in Paris, she was presented as a member the French section of the Soroptimists, the international women's association. She did not train any students and her patients, often wealthy, provided her and her husband with a good income. They created a small circle around themselves, primarily centered on her husband. Olivier, Jouve's son by his first wife, married a woman in their circle, a dancer, in spite of his stepmother's advice to the contrary.

Reverchon-Jouve participated in the 1950 World Psychiatric Congress organized by Henri Ey and, at the time of the 1953 split, she joined Daniel Lagache when he founded the Société française de psychanalyse.

Jean-Pierre Bourgeron

See also: France; Jouve, Pierre Jean; Société française de Psychanalyse.

Bibliography

Reverchon-Jouve, Blanche, and Jouve, Pierre Jean. (1933). Moments d'une psychanalyse. Nouvelle Revue Française, 234, 353-385.

Roudinesco,Élisabeth. (1990). Jacques Lacan & Co.: A history of psychoanalysis in France, 1925-1985 (Jeffrey Mehlman, Trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1986)