Beirnaert, Louis (1906-1985)
BEIRNAERT, LOUIS (1906-1985)
Louis Beirnaert, a French Jesuit and psychoanalyst, was born on April 2, 1906, in Ascq and died on April 30, 1985, in Paris. Beirnaert became a Jesuit in 1923. An almoner for law students during the Second World War, he took part in a resistance network and went underground. After the war he became a professor of dogmatic theology (1947-1951). He began his analysis with Daniel Lagache and became an analyst himself.
In 1953 he founded, together with Father Charles Durand (Geneva), Doctor Charles Nodet (Société psychanalytique de Paris [Paris Psychoanalytic Society]), and Father Bruno de Jésus-Marie (Carmelite studies), the Association Internationale d'Études MédicoPsychologiques et Religieuses (International Association of Medico-Psychological and Religious Studies) to promote the understanding of psychoanalysis within the Catholic church. During the early sixties, he created in France, together with Andrée Lehmann, Abby Marc Oraison, and Father Albert Plé (Dominican, director of the Supplément), the Association Médico-Psychologique d'Aide aux Religieux [Medico-Psychological Association for Assistance to the Clergy], which provided members of the clergy with access to psychoanalysis and a better understanding of its possibilities.
He was a member of the Société Française de Psychanalyse (French Psychoanalytic Society), theÉcole Freudienne de Paris (Freudian School of Paris), and was close to Jacques Lacan. Throughout this period he was also the editor of the Jesuit publicationÉtudes, for issues of morality, psychology, and psychoanalysis. Through his writing and numerous personal associations, Beirnaert exercised considerable influence on improving relations between psychoanalysis and the Catholic church. He wrote a number of articles on psychoanalysis, ethics, and the interrelation of psychoanalysis and Christianity.
Jacques SÉdat
See also: France; Religion and psychoanalysis.
Bibliography
Beirnaert, Louis. (1966). Expérience chrétienne et psychologie. Paris: L'Épi.
——. (1986). Aux frontières de l'acte analytique. Paris: Le Seuil.