Anne Dufourmantelle

Anne Dufourmantelle (20 March 1964 – 21 July 2017) was a French philosopher and psychoanalyst.

Education and career

Dufourmantelle was educated at Brown University and at Paris-Sorbonne University, where she earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1994. She practised psychoanalysis and was a professor at the European Graduate School and a contributor to the French daily newspaper Libération.

Her philosophical work focused on risk taking, which she argued was essential, saying that "absolute security - like 'zero risk' - is a fantasy" and that "[R]eal danger must be faced in order to survive". Her book Éloge du risque or Praise of Risk was published in 2011. Dufourmantelle was also a professor of psychoanalysis at The European Graduate School.

Death

She died on July 21, 2017, at Pampelonne beach in Ramatuelle near the city of Saint-Tropez, while trying to rescue two children caught in the Mediterranean when the water became dangerously turbulent. The children were rescued by lifeguards and survived, but Dufourmantelle could not be resuscitated. Dufourmantelle is survived by her partner Frédéric Boyer and three children. Her daughter is French singer-songwriter and composer, Clara Yse. Yse's debut EP, Le Monde S’Est Dédoublé, released in 2019, was written about Dufourmantelle's death.

Honours

Dufourmantelle won the Prix Raymond de Boyer de Sainte-Suzanne from the Académie française in 1998.

Works

• De l'hospitalité, with Jacques Derrida, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1997
• La Vocation prophétique de la philosophie, Éditions du Cerf, 1998
• La Sauvagerie maternelle, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 2001, édition poche 2016
• Le Livre de Jonas, with Marc-Alain Ouaknin, Bayard, 2001
• Parcours : entretiens avec Anne Dufourmantelle, with Miguel Benasayag, Paris, Amazon Media, 2001
• Une question d'enfant, Paris, Bayard, 2002
• Blind Date : sexe et philosophie, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 2003
• Du retour : abécédaire biopolitique, A.Pandolfi, 2003
• Negri on Negri : in conversation, Taylor & Francis, 2004
• Procès Dutroux : penser l'émotion, Paris, ministère de la Communauté française, 2004
• American Philo, with Avital Ronell, Paris, éditions Stock, 2006
• La Femme et le Sacrifice : d'Antigone à la femme d'à côté, Paris, Denoël, 2007
• Fighting theory, with Avital Ronell, Université de l'Illinois Press, 2010
• Éloge du risque, Paris, Payot, 2011
• Dieu, l'amour et la psychanalyse, with Jean-Pierre Winter, Paris, Bayard Jeunesse, 2011
• Intelligence du rêve, Paris, Payot, 2012
• En cas d'amour : psychopathologie de la vie amoureuse, Paris, Rivages, 2012 ;
• Puissance de la douceur, Paris, Payot, 2013
• Se trouver, with Laure Leter, Paris, Jean-Claude Lattès, 2014
• L'Envers du feu, Paris, éditions Albin Michel, 2015
• Défense du secret, Éditions Payot, 2015

References