As Elisabeth Roudinesco notes in the introduction to her new work – Lacan: In Spite of Everything – publication of which was brought forward last month, it is as if everything that could have been said about Lacan has already been said. Roudinesco is a controversial figure in the Lacanian world, so with her new book on Lacan she seeks for it to be read “as the exposition of a secret part of the life and work of Lacan, a wandering off the beaten track: a reverse or dark side emerging to illuminate the record… A Lacan of the margins, the edges, the literal” (p.5, ibid). Regardless, her perspective is one deserving of attention, and this is a book about Lacan and his work that is likely to be read widely. The author will be speaking at the Freud Museum in London on Friday 25th April, in conversation with Lacanian analyst and writer Dany Nobus. Tickets for the event can be booked on the museum’s site here.

Events

The New York Freud & Lacan Analytic Group (NYFLAG) has published its programme of public events for March-June this year. The group will be studying Lacan’s little-known Seminar XIX, … Or worse?, and the treatment of the Dora case history in both Freud and Lacan. Full details of the schedule are on the Lacanian Compass site.

A new MA in Psychoanalysis is being offered by Kingston University, London in conjunction with practicing analysts in London, closely supported by the Department of Psychoanalysis at Paris-8 University, the Institute of the Freudian Field and the Université Populaire Jacques Lacan (UPJL). The course starts in September 2014. More details can be found on Kingston’s site or in this course booklet.

As the twelfth Congress of the NLS approaches in Ghent in May you can follow the updates in the run-up to the event on its blog at http://www.nlscongress.org/. There is still a call for papers out and anyone wishing to present has until 31st March to submit their proposal. The theme of the Congress is ‘What Cannot Be Said: Desire, Fantasy, Real’. Registration for the event is still open. A number of groups affiliated to the NLS are hosting preparatory events. On Saturday 5th April the London Society of the NLS will be holding a workshop with brief presentations of 5-10 mins in length on chapter 21 from Seminar VI followed by a discussion of papers preparatory to the World Association of Psychoanalysis Congress coming up later that month. The workshop is free to attend and full details can be found on the London Society’s page here.

Although registrations are now closed, an English version of the thirteenth edition of the ‘What’s Up?’ bulletin which precedes the World Association for Psychoanalysis Congress taking place next month was published in February. A full archive of the English-language editions can be found on the Congress’s site here. For French speakers, the WAP’s site for the upcoming Congress on the theme of ‘A Real for the Twenty First Century’ has been updated with a series of interviews in which leading Lacanians give their perspective on this theme. There are also a number of videos in which a selection of artists, writers and other commentators offer their own thoughts on the affinity of psychoanalysis with other fields.

Lacanian analyst and author of a number of excellent books on psychoanalysis Philip Hill will be speaking at the Psychoanalysis Across the Disciplines Network at Warwick University, UK, on Thursday 6th March. His topic will be the subject that is the focus of his current research interest, psychoanalysis and immunology. Those unable to attend may nevertheless want to check out a paper of his on this theme that appeared in the journal Sitegeistin December here. More details of his talk can be found on the Psychoanalysis Across the Disciplines site.

A conference is planned for Saturday 8th March in New York on ‘Psychoanalysis in El Barrio’. Three analysts will discuss cases showing the application of technique with Latino patients in conditions of poverty. One of the speakers is Patricia Gherovici, whose book Please Select Your Gender from 2010 is an excellent Lacanian study of transgenderism throughout psychoanalytic history. Full details of the event on this page.

A half-day seminar looking forward to the New Lacanian School Congress in May on will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland on 8th March looking at ‘The Reals’ in childhood, the body, science and law. Organised by the ASREEP group of the NLS full details can be found on this flyer.

The London Society is also organising a clinical case presentation on 15th March (free to attend) under the heading of the Contemporary Lacanian Clinic. There are no details on the group’s site but the presentation will take place 11am-1pm in the Bloomsbury Suite of University of London Union.

St Petersburg in Russia will play host to a Seminar of the Freudian Field event coming up on 12th and 13th April looking at Seminar XX. ‘The Woman without Limit’ is convened by Alexandre Stevens and will look at the topic of jouissance without limit in the post-Oedipal age. Full details here.

The Nordic Summer University will be holding an interesting conference in Copenhagen on 14th, 15th and 16th March titled ‘Psychoanalysis in Our Time’. The conference’s provisional agenda, which focuses on psychoanalytic explorations of film and literature, is here.

The Movement for a Lacanian Psychoanalysis, part of the Lutecium group in Paris, has produced a calendar of upcoming events taking place in Paris and Rio de Janeiro in the coming months. Check it out here.

Publications

Hurly-Burly, the international journal of Lacanian psychoanalysis, has a call for papers out for its twelfth edition. The most recently-published edition, number 10, includes many of the papers published at the major Lacanian congresses of 2013 and preparatory texts for this year’s. Submissions of 12,000 characters or under should be made to hurlyburly.nls@gmail.com by 1st June.

The second edition of the online journal Latigazo, from December 2013, was translated into English and circulated in February. The journal is the product of the transatlantic Lacanian group Latigo. This second edition includes the second part of Jacques-Alain Miller’s presentation on the newly-published (in French) version of Lacan’s Seminar VI on Desire and its Interpretation, and an interview with Iranian Lacanian analyst Mitra Kadivar who was imprisoned against her will in Iran for six weeks in 2012. Incidentally, the full text of Miller’s presentation can also be found here.

Finally, a reminder for those who can speak languages other than English that podcasts from the newly-launched RadioLacan.com are now available on iTunes and on the group’s site.

 

Got news? Get in touch.