The journal Radical Philosophy described him as "the most original and philosophically informed psychoanalytic theorist of his day."
Since 1988, Jean Laplanche has been the scientific director of the German to French translation of Freud's complete works (Oeuvres Complètes de Freud / Psychanalyse — OCF.P) in the Presses Universitaires de France.
Laplanche published his first book in 1961. The following year, he was invited to a position at the Sorbonne by Daniel Lagache. Since then, Laplanche has maintained a regular publication schedule. Together with colleague Jean-Bertrand Pontalis, Laplanche in 1967 published The Language of Psycho-Analysis, which has become a standard encyclopedic reference on psychoanalysis. It was translated into English in 1973, and its thirteenth French edition was published in 1997. Laplanche was president of the Association Psychoanalytique de France from 1969 to 1971, being succeeded by Pontalis. His seminars have been published in the seven volume Problématiques series while many of his most important essays are found in La révolution copernicienne inachevée (1992).