ABSTRACT
Pierre Marty (1918-1993) was a psychiatrist and a full member and former president of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society. In 1970, when he set up an administrative college within the Society, he initiated a series of significant reforms to the statutes and structure of that organisation. He was keenly interested in contemporary psychosomatic practice, and, with Michel de M'Uzan, he developed the concept of 'operational thinking' and emphasised the importance of economic aspects. In 1963, with Christian David and Michel de M'Uzan, he wrote L'investigation psychosomatique [Psychosomatic investigations] (PUF, 1963), and in 1970, with Michael Fain, he set up the Paris Psychosomatic Institute. His two seminal works are: Les mouvements iridividuels da vie et de mort [Individual impulses of life and death] (Payot, 1976), and L'ordrepsychosomatique [The psychosomatic order] (Payot, 1980); in these books, he explains his conception of mental functioning in adult psychosomatic disorders, a topic that he would later develop with respect to children and babies.
