About Édouard Pichon
Lived 1890 – 1940 (aged 49). Édouard Pichon was a French physician, linguist, psychoanalyst, romanist, pediatrician and psychiatrist.
Édouard Pichon (; 24 June 1890 – 20 January 1940) was a French pediatrician, grammarian and psychoanalyst.
Career A distinguished and innovative grammarian, Pichon was analysed by Eugénie Sokolnicka, and became a founding member of the Paris Psychoanalytic Society in 1926. A member of the royalist and reactionary Action Française, Pichon represented the jingoistic strand of French psychoanalysis, with his belief in "the genuine culture and the true civilization of our country...this fundamental Frenchness".
Through his mixture of linguistic and psychoanalytic thinking, Pichon was a powerful influence on Jacques Lacan (as well as a practical mentor). In Écrits, Lacan paid tribute to "a divination that I can attribute only to his practise of semantics...that guided him in people's dark places".
Among the psychoanalytic concepts introduced by what Élisabeth Roudinesco called Pichon's "fatalist genius", were those of oblatory, scotomization, and foreclosure.
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Important facts
People in Édouard Pichon's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Édouard Pichon's
Frequently asked questions
Who was Édouard Pichon?
French MD, linguist & psychoanalyst (1890–1940)
When was Édouard Pichon born?
Édouard Pichon was born on 24 June 1890 in Sarcelles.
When did Édouard Pichon die?
Édouard Pichon died on 20 January 1940 in Paris.
What was Édouard Pichon's occupation?
Édouard Pichon was a physician, linguist, psychoanalyst, romanist, pediatrician and psychiatrist.
What nationality was Édouard Pichon?
Édouard Pichon was French.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Édouard Pichon. https://biography.guide/edouard-pichon/
MLA: "Édouard Pichon." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/edouard-pichon/.
Chicago: "Édouard Pichon." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/edouard-pichon/.
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