• Vancouver-based Lacan Salon updated its site in March with the remaining schedule of reading groups for 2013. You can also find details on their site of their annual conference, LaConference, which is coming up in June and featuring Paul Verhaeghe as guest speaker. As many will be aware, Verhaeghe is the author of a number of truly excellent books on psychoanalysis from a Lacanian perspective. For a sample of his work check out his prescient keynote paper ‘Chronicle of a death foretold: the end of psychotherapy’, delivered at the Health4Life conference in Dublin in 2007 (or watch it via the link here). Five years before the 2012 AMP Congress looked at the nature of the symbolic order in the 21st century, Verhaeghe attributes the overtaking of classical Freudian symptomatology (conversion symptoms concealing hidden meanings) by ‘new’ pathologies (purely somatic ‘actual’ pathologies like panic attacks, addiction, self-harm) to the failure of the symbolic order to perform its mirroring function. Great paper, and if you are in or near Vancouver in June LaConference is sure to be worth a visit.

 

  • An edited version of Levi S. Bryant’s address to the Toronto Lacan Society on ‘Lacan’s Universes of Discourse and New Symptoms’ was posted to his site in March. Bryant makes the case for the explanatory efficiency of the Lacanian mathemes (the formulas of sexuation from Seminar XX, the four discourses from Seminar XVII) and the way it transforms psychoanalysis, before looking in detail at the question of fantasy.

 

  • Apres-Coup, the New York Lacanian group, is continuing the pursue it’s schedule of conferences and speeches throughout 2013 under the theme of ‘The Psychoanalytic Act and Creation’. Scroll towards the bottom of this PDF for upcoming talks and their dates.

 

  • Also coming up in New York in April is an interesting-sounding event on ‘Psychoanalysis and Laughter’. Organised by the Affiliated Psychoanalytic Workgroups it takes the form of a study weekend from 26th-28th April at Fordham. More details via the link above (which will take you to the flyer) or register on the APW’s site here.

 

  • Pierre-Gilles Guéguen’s two seminars at the Lacan Circle of Melbourne in March on ‘Ou Pire’, one of Lacan’s seminars just released in France under the editorship of Jacques-Alain Miller, are available to download at the bottom of this page.

 

  • Last month it was confirmed that Jacques-Alain Miller is to give the opening and closing remarks at the ‘What Lacan Knew About Women’ symposium which is taking place in Miami at the end of May. There is an extremely strong cast of other Lacanian speakers who will be appearing at the event. The organisers of the Symposium have also released the first in a series of newsletters ‘On the road to the Miami Symposium’, the first of which you can read here.

 

  • David Murphy, of the Alliance for Counselling and Psychotherapy here in the UK, has written a detailed account of the regulatory environment in Britain at present, and to what extent the therapies delivered match up to the NICE (the National Institute for Clinical Excellence) guidelines: “It’s a well known fact that therapy as it is delivered on the ground bears little resemblance to the therapy as it is carried out within randomised control trials (RCT).” Great article deserving of consideration.

 

  • In a similar vein, Alan Frances M.D., chair of the DSM-IV taskforce, who described the DSM-V as “the saddest moment in my 45 year career of studying, practicing and teaching psychiatry” is speaking at an event at the Freud Museum in London on 10th June entitled ‘How well does Freud’s work stand the test of time?’. A not infrequently-asked question, but one that Dr Frances is likely to have an interesting perspective on. More details of the event here, and if you’re that way inclined it’s worth following Dr Frances on Twitter.

 

  • The College of Psychoanalysts in the UK is to hold a research study day on Saturday 20th April from 10-5pm at Birkbeck, University of London. Different members of the college will present short summaries of their current research interests, followed by the opportunity for debate and discussion. Register at the discounted rate of £20 before 10th April; £25 thereafter. Full details on the College’s site here.

 

  • Here in London, the Seminar VII Reading Group hosted by Julia Evans and Bruno de Florence will be meeting on Saturday’s throughout the spring and summer. The dates for the next meetings can all be found here. All take place 10:30-12:30 in Room 102, Senate House, University of London, Malet Street. The group is free and open to all.

 

  • The Site for Contemporary Psychoanalysis in the UK will be hosting a talk by Dr James Davies entitled ‘The DSM – A great work, of fiction? A study of why psychiatry has become bad for our mental health’, which may be of some interest to the Lacanian community given its generally shared opposition to the introduction of the DSM-V. The event takes place at the October Gallery in Bloomsbury, London, on Saturday 11th May at 2:30. Registration in advance is recommended and the cost is £15 (£10 for trainees). More details can be found on the group’s Facebook page.

 

  • The Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research in London has published details of its annual conference taking place on Saturday 6th July with the theme of ‘Child Analysis: New Perspectives’. Full details and how to register in advance are here. CFAR has also added details of its Short Course on Unconscious Fantasy which begins on 4th May, and its public seminar programme which runs most Saturdays for the summer term. The latter looks like the most interesting menu of talks at CFAR for a long time. Bice Benvenuto’s rescheduled talk on ‘Contemporary Symptoms: Panic Attacks’ and Veronique Voruz’s ‘Depression: symptom, affect or diagnosis’, both on 18th May, together with the round table debate on ‘Depression, Melancholia and Time’ on 29th, June look like particular highlights.

 

  • THERIP, the Higher Education Network for Research and Information in Psychoanalysis, in London is organising a two-day conference coming up in July on the topic of ‘The Fragmented World of Psychoanalysis: Is Dialogue Possible?. You can find the flyer for the event here and more details on THERIP’s site here.

 

  • The Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Studies, University of London, is hosting a weekly seminar on ‘Psychoanalysis, Literature and Practice’ starting on Friday 10th May at 5pm. If you are interested in attending you can find more details here.

 

  • Lacanian Ink, the journal of Lacan.com, is soon releasing edition 41/42, a special issue from Slavoj Zizek on ‘Wagner and Consequences – Five Lacanian Readings of Classic Operas’. It’s not yet listed on Lacan.com but keep an eye on Lacanian Ink’s listings on Amazon for details of how to get a copy.

 

  • Finally, something for French speakers. You can watch video of Jacques-Alain Miller testifying in the debate on marriage pour tous in front of the French Senate Judiciary Committee on Marital Equality on the Senate’s site here. Miller is also currently writing regular blog pieces for French site La Regle du Jeu, which you can follow here. French speakers may also be interested to know that audio of two radio broadcasts Lacan gave in 1970 have found their way onto YouTube. Radiophonie can be found here and another unidentified talk from November 1970 here.

 

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