History and activities

Founded in 1996** by a group of French doctors (mostly psychiatrists), the Piotr-Tchaadaev Association has two main goals: Continuing Medical Education*** for French doctors and scientific cooperation with Eastern Europe.

In the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, we found it essential to renew the dialogue with our colleagues which for years of totalitarian regimes had been largely isolated from scientific exchanges, especially in the field of psychiatry and psychoanalysis.

Our project was not to bring any preconceived ideas to Russia and then to Central Europe, but to learn the practices and the theoretical references of our colleagues in order to exchange with them.

By surrounding ourselves with speakers from different fields of psychiatry, clinical psychology and psychoanalysis, but also from all other medical specialties and sociology, we hope to suggest themes which allow to reflect on clinical psychiatry and psychiatric therapy. We are also particularly interested in learning about the health systems and care facilities in the countries we visit regularly, as well as their history and culture.

After a particularly successful Franco-Russian Symposium in St. Petersburg in 1997, we visited the Nice area, then Prague and finally Budapest, where we settled in a way, because of the success of the first Colloquium in 2004 (which was then not called the “Divan on the Danube”, the name given by Patrick Debut, the Budapest Scientific Cooperation Attaché at the time), and the invitation of our colleagues and friends to come back and continue what had been done.

We also co-organized, in close cooperation with various colleagues and institutions, seminars in Breil-sur-Roya (Alpes-Maritimes) and in Italy, in Trieste and Gorizia (“The legacy of Franco Basaglia”).

The meeting of our initiative in the field of art therapy has also been particularly fruitful, since there are presentations on this theme every year, and several exhibitions at the French Institute took place at the time of the Annual Symposium in Budapest.

The following is a summary of the different events of the Piotr-Tchaadaev Association:

• October 1997: Franco-Russian Symposium in St. Petersburg “Psychiatry as Dialogue”
• May 1999: Meeting in Nice “Around Louis-Ferdinand Céline, doctor and writer”
• July 2001: Nice and Vallée de la Roya (Alpes-Maritimes) “Therapeutic Utopias”
• May 2003: Franco-Czech symposium in Prague “Psychiatry, heretical part of medicine?”
• May 2004: I ° Franco-Hungarian Symposium in Budapest “The Budapest School”
• May 2005: II ° Franco-Hungarian Symposium in Budapest “A Divan on the Danube”
• May 2006: III ° Franco-Hungarian Conference in Budapest “A Divan on the Danube” – Exhibition of French patients’ work in Lipotmezö
• May 2007: IV ° Franco-Hungarian Conference in Budapest “A Divan on the Danube”
• May 2008: V ° European Conference in Budapest “A Divan on the Danube”, preceded by the exhibition “Résonances” at the French Institute
• May 2009: VI ° “Divan on the Danube” in Budapest
• May 2010: VII ° “Divan on the Danube” in Budapest
• June 2011: VIII ° “Divan on the Danube” in Budapest
• May 2012: IX ° “Divan on the Danube” in Budapest
• November 2012 – April 2016: 8 semestrial conferences in cooperation with the University of Nice-Sophia and the Breil / Roya CH
• November 2012: 1st Colloquium “The legacy of Franco Basaglia” in Trieste and Gorizia
• May 2013: X ° “Divan on the Danube” in Budapest
• May 2014: XI ° “Divan on the Danube” in Budapest – 10th anniversary
• November 2014: 2nd Colloquium “The legacy of Franco Basaglia” in Trieste and Gorizia
• May 2015: XII ° “Divan on the Danube” in Budapest
• November 2015: 3rd Colloquium “The legacy of Franco Basaglia” in Trieste and Gorizia
• May 2016: XIII ° “Divan on the Danube” in Budapest
• May 2017: XIV ° “Divan on the Danube” in Budapest

Since July 2003: quarterly publication of a newsletter distributed free of charge in hundreds of copies over the Internet, “Il Volantino Europeo”. Original articles and free galleries, review of books. (56 issues published to date).

The Piotr-Tchaadaev Association was also involved in a twinning project between two French and Hungarian hospitals. To date, very encouraging exchanges have taken place between the Art Workshops of the two institutions, in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The Piotr-Tchaadev Association has no sponsors, in particular it is strictly independent from the pharmaceutical industry. Its only organizational support is provided by the French Institute (since 2004) and the Italian Institute of Culture in Budapest (since 2009) and by the Healthcare Institutions and Foundations visited in France, Hungary and Italy.

We also cooperated with the Goethe Institute in Budapest in 2009 and with the Romanian Institute in 2011 and 2012.

The Piotr-Tchaadaev Association also works regularly in partnership with other associations with similar aims, French or international, and in particular with the Association of Francophone Doctors of Hungary, ALFAPSY (France) and Ébredések Alapítvány (Hungary). It regularly develops and maintains contacts with Colleagues and Teams from different countries, whose participation in the Colloquium is always voluntary.

Updated September 11, 2017, subject to change.

President: Dr. Jean-Yves FEBEREY (Nice, Pierrefeu-du-Var); Vice-President: Dr. Roland JARRIGE (Paris); Treasurer: Dr. Alexandre NEPOMIACHTY (Versailles); Secretary: Dr. Jean-Bernard NARBAÏTS (Paris)
** OJ of 26/06/1996 Ref. 261789
*** N ° FMC Piotr-Tchaadaev 11 78 0511778