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• Serge Tisseron

In the Series “Conférences de Prestige” of the Alliance Française de Missoula
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The Missoula Chapter of the Alliance Française, the Délégation Générale de l’Alliance Française aux Etats-Unis (Washington D.C.), the Psychology Department of the University of Montana, the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department of the University of Montana, the Office of International Programs of the University of Montana, and the Montana Committee for the Humanities,  in collaboration with the radio of the five academies of The Institut de France (Canal Académie), are proud and happy to announce the following program:

From a modest background, Serge Tisseron has always shown a special interest in “sub-” and “popular” -cultures”, like comics, graffiti, or television sitcoms. Using a simple language that can be understood by a maximum of readers, he wrote several best-sellers.
To this day, his work includes about thirty personal books, including two which have received awards: The Television Book Prize in 2002 for L’intimité surexposée [Overexposed Intimacy] and the Stassart Prize of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences in 2003 for Les Bienfaits des images [The Beneficial Effects of Images], 2002, Odile Jacob. He has contributed to more than 50 collective works. He is regularly consulted by various state officials about cultural and educational problems in relation to the mass media. From 1997 to 2000, he completed a study on the individual and collective effects of violent images for children age 11 to 13.
After completing his high school diploma in philosophy, he began the study of literature at the Ecole Normale Supérieure where he was to discover the surrealist poets and decided to become a psychiatrist. From 1978 to 1997, Serge Tisseron worked as a hospital psychiatrist and then taught psychology at the University of Paris VII. He is currently Director of Research at the University of Paris X-Nanterre.
He made a name for himself by discovering a secret in the family of Hergé exclusively through the study of the internationally known Tintin albums, a number of years before the biography of Hergé became popular and the family secret known. He published Tintin chez le psychanalyste [Tintin at the Psychoanalyst’s], 1985, Aubier Archimbaud. Serge Tisseron published the first work in French devoted entirely to shame (La Honte, psychanalyse d’un lien social [Shame: the Psychoanalysis of a Social Link], 1994, Dunod. He was one of the first to analyze the pathogenic effects of secrets over a number of generations (Secrets de famille, mode d’emploi [Family Secrets, A User’s Guide], 1996, Marabout.
During the period when psychoanalysis paid no attention to cartoons and the 7th art (cinema) and when semiologists were only interested in the construction of images, Serge Tisseron laid the foundation for a theory of reception which attributes an important role to the body (Psychanalyse de l’image, des premiers traits au virtuel [Psychoanalysis of the Image, From the First Features to the Virtual], 1995, Dunod. Then he questioned the particular relationship that we establish with cartoons, photography (Le Mystère de la chambre claire [Mystery of the Camera Lucida], 1995, Poche; television with L’intimité surexposée (devoted to TV-reality shows), 2001, Hachette Littératures; cinema with Comment Hitchcock m’a guéri [How Hitchcock Cured Me], 2003, Hachette Littératures; and computer screens (Virtuel, mon amour [Virtual, My Love], 2008, Albin Michel.

Synopsis of the Conference
In his numerous works and research dealing with the relationship of televised images with violence in children (age three to five), Serge Tisseron distinguishes between images which have a violent content and the violence of images which lead to confusion,
Faced with violent images, all spectators try to hold onto their mental landmarks and psychic parameters by using three complementary means which enable them to distance themselves from what they are feeling: language, construction of their own images (mental or material), and sensory-mobility. But in these three cases, this distance is only possible if there is an exchange with a third party. In the case of failure, the spectator reacts in three different ways depending on his or her history and environment: some use violent images as a justification to use violence themselves; others fear being victims of violence; and still others develop constructive or refreshing reflexes.
The violence of images does not create these adaptive and behavioristic profiles, but causes them to become encysted. It does not make young people more violent but pushes the psychological profile of each one to the extreme: aggressor, victim, or righter of wrongs. It is in that way that it contributes to an increase in violence, particularly in the school setting. 
Links to interviews with Serge Tisseron: 
Radio des cinq académies de l’Institut de France (Canal Académie):
http://www.canalacademie.com/La-television-alimente-t-elle-l.html?var_recherche=Serge%20Tisseron 
Other websites:
http://www.journaldunet.com/itws/it_tisseron.shtml
http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2009/01/06/serge-tisseron-l-addiction-aux-jeux-video-est-rare_1138448_651865.html
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2001/12/TISSERON/15959
http://www.lefigaro.fr/conso/2008/03/22/05007-20080322ARTFIG00030-serge-tisseron-le-rendez-vous-des-bienfaiteurs-et-des-gogos.php
For more details: www.afmissoula.org or contact Dr. Michel Valentin: 243-2301