A slightly late recap of the latest news from the Lacanian world in December due to problems with the site. Thanks to all who got in touch – improvements coming shortly.

In the debate about marriage for all currently underway in France, some opposed to the French government’s bill have appealed to psychoanalysis to justify their opposition. In response, a group of leading Lacanians have set up a new petition against what they label the ‘instrumentalisation’ of psychoanalysis. Currently the petition is only in French, but you can read and sign it on Lacan Quotidien here.

Most French-speaking Lacanians, especially those who have visited Paris, will be aware of the Librarie Lipsy on the Rue Monge. This bookstore is a real treasure trove of psychoanalytic literature, and plays a valuable role in organising and promoting events in the Parisian psychoanalytic scene. Like their page on Facebook here, join their forum at http://livresetpsy.forumgratuit.org/ and – of course – browse and buy at http://www.librairie-lipsy.fr/

Events

A conference in July this year is being organised by The Higher Education Network for Research and Information in Psychoanalysis (THERIP). Entitled ‘Is Dialogue Possible’ it will look at what is fruitful in the debate between the different orientations. More details on their site: http://therip.org.uk/. THERIP’s previous conference on the Klein-Lacan dialogues resulted in the publication of this excellent volume, and the group has made this paper from the International Journal of Psychoanalysis on that topic available as preparatory reading for this conference.

The Lacan Circle of Melbourne has organised a three-day public lecture series, with French analyst Pierre-Gilles Guéguen as guest speaker, studying Lacan’s XIXth Seminar, … ou pire [or worse] of which an ‘official’ text under the direction of Jacques-Alain Miller has recently been published in French. The talk will take place at the Australian Institute of International Affairs from Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd March. Registration details will be sent out shortly but for the time being here is the event’s synopsis:

If you read the extraordinary postface by Jacques-Alain Miller to the French edition of Seminar XIX called … ou pire, … or worse, you will get a sense of why this seminar is Lacan’s Seminar XI for today. It is a seminar that has undoubtedly passed unnoticed because of the huge public success of Encore, which speaks of feminine jouissance. But …or worse is to Lacanian psychoanalysis what Jack Kerouac’s On the road was to the beat generation; it is the book of a generation, one that opens onto the real clinical situation of the post-68 period. We intend to study it, not as a manual of Lacanian formalism, although it is that as well, nor in a line of continuity with Lacan’s overall teaching, but as the first work of post-Oedipal psychoanalysis, one capable of guiding us in our practice with subjects as they present themselves to us today. Naturally, our study requires both erudition and research. Of course, we will be obliged to return to Parmenides and Aristotelian logic. But we will not allow ourselves to be bogged down by the love of knowledge, for it is a question here of the future of psychoanalysis.

The New Lacanian School (NLS) is calling for contributions in preparation for the Congress of the NLS on ‘The psychotic subject in the geek era’. More information and how to submit can be found here.

The PIPOL congress organised by the EuroFederation of Psychoanalysis is planned for 6th and 7th July in Brussels. It will examine the diversity of psychoanalytic practices in Europe in the post-Oedipus era and simultaneous translations will be provided in Dutch, English, French, Italian and Spanish. More details here.

The London-based study group led by Julia Evans following Lacan’s Seminar VII on The Ethics of Psychoanalysis will also be meeting regularly throughout the Spring term at Senate House, University of London. The full timetable is on the Lacanian Works site here.

A French-language conference in Cologne, Germany, on ‘The Field of Jouissance’ is planned for 7-8th June. It will look at sexuality, knowledge and power in Lacan’s later work. Full details here.

A reminder that the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research in London is pursuing its Spring timetable of public lectures every weekend up to 16th March. The full schedule can be found on their site here.

Publications

Hurly-Burly, the international journal of Lacanian psychoanalysis, is looking for contributors to its next edition, no. 9, on the theme of the next Congress of the New Lacanian School (NLS) ‘The psychotic subject in the geek era’; and on the theme of the 2014 Congress of the World Association of Psychoanalysis (the AMP), ‘A Real for the XXIst Century’. Submissions of no more than 10,000 characters must be received in English no later than 10th Feb at hurlyburly.nls@gmail.com

For a sample of Hurly-Burly’s output take a look at the commentary on selected papers from it on the NLS site here.

The Belgian journal Quarto has just published its 103rd edition Est-ce Un? The journal is in French and you can buy it from the Cause Freudienne’s site here.

The New York Times published an article in its magazine on 23rd November once more reasserting the death of psychoanalysis in the United States. Nothing new, but you can read the article in full here on the NYT site.

Rik Loose has put together a summary of the Irish Circle of the Lacanian Orientation (ICLO-NLS) lecture by Laure Naveau on ‘Anxiety, signal of the Real’ from last year. You can read it on the New Lacanian School’s site here.

Finally, those still following the ongoing autism debate, which raged throughout 2012 in France especially, may wish to keep an eye out for the documentary Other Voices, to be released in April. The English-language trailer can be found here.

 

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