The battle for mental health pluralism: What Amendment 159 endangers
As a mental-health professional and an engaged citizen, I express my firm and unequivocal opposition to Amendment 159 of the 2026 Social Security Financing Bill (PLFSS). This amendment jeopardizes the diversity of psychotherapeutic approaches and specifically targets psychoanalysis a discipline that, for more than a century, has demonstrated its unique ability to understand, transform, and safeguard the human mind.
As a researcher in neuropsychoanalysis at the Brain Institute, I study the concrete impact of psychoanalysis on the brain and on the unconscious mechanisms that regulate our emotions, behaviors, and relationships.
The evidence is clear: psychoanalysis is not a luxury; it is essential for achieving deep, long-lasting psychological healing.
Psychoanalysis saves lives!
It enables us to:
- explore the underlying causes of psychological suffering often invisible to symptom-based methods including the roots of severe depression, chronic anxiety, and suicidal behaviors;
- treat early and complex trauma by reshaping the psychic structure and interrupting harmful behavioral repetitions;
- prevent relapse in chronic disorders by offering a profound understanding of intrapsychic conflicts and unconscious dynamics.
Clinical studies and meta-analyses consistently confirm the effectiveness of analytic psychotherapies, showing stable, long-term benefits for severe depressive and anxiety disorders.
Therapeutic diversity: A foundation for effective care
Mental-health care functions as an ecosystem, because each approach brings unique value.
- Psychoanalysis provides unmatched depth by exploring the unconscious and revealing recurrent patterns at the origin of chronic suffering.
- Cognitive-behavioral therapies offer practical tools to regulate emotions and behaviors.
- Medical psychiatry intervenes when biology threatens survival.
Restricting or marginalizing psychoanalysis would impose a uniform and reductionist vision of care one that cannot meet the singular needs of each patient. It would deprive individuals of transformative, durable therapeutic options.
What brain research reveals about psychoanalysis
Neuroimaging research shows that psychoanalysis reshapes the brain networks involved in emotional regulation, autobiographical memory, and narrative coherence. Analytic listening and work on unconscious conflicts modulate the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, fostering psychological resilience and suicide prevention.
Psychoanalysis helps patients connect past and present, consciousness and the unconscious, enabling them to discover unique solutions to their inner conflicts. It stands as a scientific, clinical, and ethical pillar of modern mental-health care.
The ethical and societal stakes of restricting psychoanalysis
Marginalizing psychoanalysis would lead to measurable consequences:
- increased inequalities in access to care, especially for patients with complex or chronic disorders;
- deterioration of mental-health quality due to standardized approaches unable to meet individual needs;
- diminished autonomy for therapists, prevented from choosing the tools most appropriate for their patients.
My call to action
I urge legislators to recognize the irreplaceable value of psychoanalysis and the fundamental need for therapeutic pluralism. Mental health cannot be reduced to administrative norms or budgetary figures. It is alive, unique, and complex.
I call on citizens, healthcare professionals, patients, and advocates of mental-health care to mobilize: write to senators, sign the petition, and share this cause.
Defending psychoanalysis and the diversity of psychotherapeutic practices means defending lives.
Write to your senators: https://lnkd.in/ehGQNNSz
Sign and share the SNP petition : https://c.org/TjssCYNRnq
🔗 Read also: Reconciling Psychoanalysis with Neuroscience
References
Fischer-Kern M. et collaborateurs, 2018, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, “Neurobiological effects of psychoanalytic therapy”
Fonagy P. et collaborateurs, 2002, Affect Regulation, Mentalization, and the Development of the Self
Freud S., 1917, Introduction à la psychanalyse
Freud S., 1923, Le moi et le ça
Leichsenring F. et collaborateurs, 2014, The Lancet Psychiatry, “Long-term effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy”
Shedler J., 2010, The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Flora Toumi
Psychoanalyst, Researcher at the Paris Brain Institute, and Doctor of Philosophy
Flora Toumi holds a PhD in Philosophy and is a neuropsychoanalyst and clinical sexologist specializing in resilience and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She works with both civilians and members of the French Special Forces and the Foreign Legion, using an integrative approach that combines Ericksonian hypnosis, EMDR, and psychoanalysis.
As a researcher at the Paris Brain Institute, she regularly collaborates with neuropsychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik on the processes of psychological reconstruction.
Flora Toumi has also developed an innovative method for PTSD prevention and founded the first national directory of psychoanalysts in France. Her work bridges science, humanity, and philosophy in a quest to unite body, soul, and mind.
