Anne Dufourmantelle


Anne Dufourmantelle 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 La 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 "eal danger must be faced in order to survive". Her book Éloge du risque or Praise of Risk was published in 2011.

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.

Honours

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

Works