Biological properties of a panel of murine monoclonal anti-Brucella antibodies.

Immune sera have previously been shown to play a positive role in immune protection against murine experimental brucellosis. The protective properties of a panel of five anti-Brucella monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) were therefore assessed by estimation of the acceleration of the blood clearance of intravenously inoculated Brucella and of the reduction of splenic infection on Day 7 after infection. Three 'strongly protective', one 'weakly protective' and one 'non-protective' Mabs were identified. As a first step towards the study of the mechanism of this humoral protection, these Mabs were further compared for structural and functional properties such as immunoglobulin isotype, anti-Brucella specificity, anti-Brucella in vitro bacteriostasis, Brucella agglutination and complement fixation when complexed with tyndallized Brucella. No correlation was found between protection and either agglutination or direct bacteriostasis. On the other hand, the results observed suggest that isotypes (and especially the IgG2a isotype) could play an important role in in vivo immuno protection and that complement may be involved. However, the fact that one of the protective Mabs belongs to the IgA isotype, does not cross-react with the others in anti-Brucella epitopic specificity and does not fix complement underlines the probable diversity of the mechanisms involved.

Two sensitive assays for the detection of anti-Brucella antibodies.

A laser-nephelometric assay (LNA), applied to an adapted Wright's agglutination technique and an immunoenzymatic assay (ELISA) on tyndallised and sonicated Brucella are described. Both lead to an increased sensitivity of previous techniques for the detection of anti-Brucella antibodies. This was assessed in a) Brucellosis patients with either Wright and/or IF positive reactions (sero-positive) or Wright and IF negative reactions (sero-negative, ancient brucellosis). Positive results were obtained in all cases with a highly significant increase of the titers observed in "sero-positive" patients. b) Normal subjects with no previous history and no biological stigmata of brucellosis: most sera gave negative results - a very low incidence of weakly positive results were however evidenced. c) Subjects vaccinated with fraction PI: positive results were observed in all cases. They were much earlier detected with LNA or ELISA than with Wright's or IF tests and the ELISA or LNA titers of late "sero-positive" sera were 3 to 36 times higher than Wright's titers. d) Supernatants of anti-Brucella hydridomas: LNA and ELISA were both successfully applied to the screening of such supernatants.

[Seven years later.]. / Sept ans après.

Seven years after the interruption of his analysis, Norbert comes back to see his analyst. He tells him what happened during the seven years before asking him a question. Having heard this account of wandering and of the discovery of a certain equilibrium, the analyst remembers certain "moments" of the analysis of Norbert, the transferential activity, the family structure. He has a beginning perception, through associations, of new theoretical perspectives on the question of time in psychoanalysis, on that of the father in the psychoses, the cystic-like growth of the psychotic process. Finally he questions himself on his place in relation to the question of the "father's name" when Norbert asks him, in ending, if he will still be there when he will want to take up his analytic journey again.

Induction of autoantibodies and circulating immune complexes in mice after injection of Brucella fraction "PI" or inoculation with live Brucella suis.

"PI", a vaccinating fraction with B mitogenic and polyclonal activator (PCA) activity extracted from Brucella melitensis, was i. p. injected into B6 and DB mice. In B6 mice, this led to an important but transient increase in the level of anti-ssDNA antibodies, the induction of rheumatoid factor (RF) and the appearance of circulating immune complexes (CIC). In DB mice, on the other hand, the only significant effect consisted of a slight and ephemeral peak of CIC in sera from day 7. Similarly, while i. v. inoculation of live B. suis did not influence the levels of anti-ssDNA, RF or CIC in DB mice, in the B6 mice it exerted effects which were comparable to those of PI but considerably weaker, more transient and somewhat delayed. These results are discussed in terms of the importance and significance of strain-dependence for the induction of autoimmune phenomena by PCA and microbial infections.

[Psychoanalysis is dying, psychoanalysis is dead, long live the RCMP!]. / La psychanalyse se meurt, la psychanalyse est morte, vive la G.R.C. psychiatrique!

In this article the author is interested by psychoanalysis as a theoretical practice. He makes the connection between psychoanalysis and marxism, and shows us that Freud was not as far removed from marxism as some people think. His reflexions and experiences bring him to strongly criticize psychiatry which, in his view, is a repressive practice contributing to the murder of psychoanalysis as a practice which questions the truth of the subject.

[Places to listen : institutional analysis.]. / Les lieux de l'écoute : L'analyse institutionnelle.

In this, the last section of a long article, the author paints a picture, both clinical and theoretical, of institutional analysis. To accomplish this he uses his experience in a Montreal psychiatric hospital. One can see in the text the articulating mechanisms of institutional analysis in practice, and the internal and external resistances to which such an approach gives rise. One can also become aware of certain results obtained by such an approach and of what it can upset within conventional structures.

[The language of madness.]. / L'élangage de la Folie.

Following a description of the chaos existent in the therapeutic, political and methodological approaches to madness, the author underlines the importance of language in the explanation of the totality of attitudes regarding the insane. He formulates two hypotheses: listening to madness can be accomplished by the awareness of what the speech of the insane touches in us and tends to modify among our conception; the practice of speaking of madness can avoid bias in as much as it is rooted in a quality of hearing which permits anything to happen to those who put themselves in such a hearing situation. These hypotheses are then demonstrated by an analysis of texts and interviews with people having experienced psychosis.

[The places of listening.]. / Les lieux de l'écoute : Pour une clinique psychanalytique des psychoses...1.

In this, the first of two articles, the author describes his approach of listening to the psychotic. From personal childhood experience, in this case the character Miss Withers, he explains the concept of significant language and its relation to the erotic body. He then integrates the notions of repression, the unconscious and transference into this perspective. Then he outlines the motives justifying a clinical psychoanalysis of the psychoses concluding that it is within the institutional milieu, that the question concerning the conditions 'necessary to a psy-