Charles Baudouin


Charles Baudouin was a French-Swiss psychoanalyst.

Biography

Baudouin was born Nancy, France. In his work, he combined Freudianism with elements of the thought of Carl Jung and Alfred Adler. He died, aged 70, in Geneva.
After studying literature, Charles Baudouin continued his education in philosophy at the Sorbonne, where he got interested by the personalities of Pierre Janet and Henri Bergson. In 1913, as a young graduate in philosophy, Baudouin was interested by the work of Emile Coué and contributed to making him famous.
In 1915, Pierre Bovet and Edouard Claparède invited him to participate in the work of the Institute Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the future Faculty of Psychology of the University of Geneva, where he was appointed as a professor. Switzerland also allowed him to get closer to Romain Rolland.
Baudouin had his first analysis with Dr. Carl Picht, a Jungian. After meeting with Sigmund Freud in Vienna in 1926, he began a second "didactic" analysis, from 1926 to 1928, with Dr. Charles Odier, a Freudian of the time. A few years later, he followed up with a new analytical experience with Tina Keller.
He did not neglect the historical foundations of psychoanalysis, particularly suggestion and hypnosis.
This experience and all his therapeutic practice, including the therapy of children and education led him to express the respective contributions of Freud and Jung with his own findings. "Freud or Jung’s alternatives must be overcome, we must be in favor of psychoanalysis," he said and added, "It's like asking you: Are you for Newton or Einstein? To which there is only one answer: I am for physics".
He brought to psychoanalytic structure his personal contribution, reaching the conclusion of "De l'instinct à l'esprit." He also wrote the interesting term "Psychagogy".
In 1924 he founded the International Institute of Psychagogy and Psychotherapy under the patronage of Adler, Allendy, Bachelard, Coue, Flournoy, Freud, Hesnard, Janet, Jung, Laforgue, etc. Later the Institute was renamed in to International Institute for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Charles Baudouin, headquartered in Geneva.
He published a pacifist journal, Le Carmel, published various articles mainly from 1933 to 1935 and, alternately, as of 1917 a monthly magazine Les Cahiers du Carmel. When these journals ceased publication, Baudouin replaced them with the Bulletin trimestriel de l’Institut international de psychagogie, which became in 1931 the Action et Pensée magazine. This is still published twice a year.

International Institute for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Charles Baudouin

The Institute was officially founded in Geneva in 1924 by Charles Baudouin as the "Institute of Psychagogy and Psychotherapy". Its patronage committee over time included, Adler, Allendy, Bachelard Besse, Coué, Driesch, Durand, Eliade, Flournoy, Flugel, Freud, Guitton, Hesnard, Huyghe, Janet, Jung, Laforgue, Maeder and Meng. The first directors were Baudouin, Bovet and Claparède.
It is the oldest French institute of psychoanalysis.
The institute today has over a hundred practitioners in Europe and is represented in four countries: Belgium, France, Italy and Switzerland. It pursues a constant research on the theoretical and practical side, organizes conferences, seminars and symposiums open to the public and is always eager to train new members in the spirit of openness, which characterized its practice.

Theoretical concepts of the founders

Baudouin supports his methodology on three levels, depending on the degree of contribution of the unconscious. It therefore has three kinds of methods used separately, sequentially or simultaneously as appropriate:

From the Conscious to the Conscious: "The educational methods"Baudouin Ch., La Force en nous, Nancy-Genève, Ed. de la Société lorraine de Psychologie Appliqué – Ed. du Carmel, 1923, 1950 Baudouin Ch., Mobilisation de l’énergie. Éléments de psychagogie théorique et pratique, Ed. Pelman, Paris, 1931

Baudouin based the psychoanalytic synthesis primarily on Freudian, Jungian and Adlerian based concepts, plus his own, clearing the vibrant and dynamic complementarity. Baudouin brings together in one representation the scheme of "the seven partners of the Ego", including:
Of their oppositions, agreements or complementarity, the always shifting balance of the psychic system will depend.

Works

Through his numerous books and conferences, Baudouin promoted psychoanalysis not only in French-speaking countries but around the world. His work merits greater attention from modern historians and psychoanalysts. His concerns and fields of interest are often directly relevant to contemporary psychoanalysis. He is a precursor in a number of fields and some books have been translated in German, English, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian and Swedish. A valuable collection of his essays, Contemporary Studies includes "The Linguistic International." His speech in Esperanto given during the 'somera universitato' as part of an international Esperanto Congress in Geneva, was published under the title La arto de memdisciplino.

Some books in English

Charles Baudouin archives can be consulted in the following locations: