L'excitation : la physiologie reste première

The concept of excitation is used in physics, physiology, psychology and psychoanalysis. The article reviews the history of this concept in different scientific disciplines, including psychoanalysis considered as science of nature. If the psychoanalytic movement as for a long time was uninterested in this concept, which Freud a militant physicalist was very attached to, there was a turnaround in the 1980s. At the same time, the cognitive sciences became neurocognitive and advanced in a better understanding of Freudianism. A new dialogue, after some failures reported here, is currently under way for psychoanalysis to fully regain its original status as a science of nature.