The Symptom 14, the free online journal from Lacan.com, was released mid-way through August – take a read up on the site. It includes articles by Eric Laurent on sublimation, Marie-Helene Brousse on the imaginary register, and a  translation from Jacques-Alain Miller’s course on Lacanian orientation from 1982 entitled ‘From Symptom to Fantasy and Back’. Also included in this edition is a link to the video of a particularly beautiful story from a former patient of Lacan’s recalling her time in analysis with him. The account was provided in Gerard Miller’s 2011 film Rendez-vous chez Lacan but because the documentary is in French a translation and accompanying commentary was made for this site, which you can find here.

 

Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing, an organisation which houses a digital archive of all major psychoanalytic texts (for a fee, unfortunately), is working on a video archive to complement the existing archive of texts. In a press release the group says that “We will be seeking to add content from many different sources covering many different issues over the coming months and years”. However, the statement goes on to say that they “encourage the creation of new material”. Incredibly, there is $100,000 available in grant funding available to make these videos – a fantastic opportunity for anyone interested in psychoanalysis and with video editing experience. Read more on their site here.

 

A complete archive of (Re)-turn, the Journal of Lacanian Studies (2003-2011) and the Newsletter of the Freudian Field (1987-1994) are both now available available online for free. To access, follow this link, click Login in the top right hand corner, and enter the username ‘Editors’ and the password ‘Lacan5851’. Thanks once again to Jack W. Stone for bringing together another great resource for Lacanian scholarship.

 

Many thanks to Sigi Jottkandt of Open Humanities Press for relaying news that Penumbra, an open access anthology of the journal Umbr(a), is also now available free online: http://re-press.org/books/penumbra/. Umbr(a) was one of the most important US theory journals of the 1990s and early 2000s, publishing work by some of the greatest philosophers, psychoanalysts and theorists of our era. In every regard, it was ahead of the curve – in content, design, and style – often introducing thinkers who have subsequently become globally influential. This anthology presents a selection of the very best of Umbr(a), including contributions from Joan Copjec, Sam Gillespie, Juliet Flower MacCannell , Charles Shepherdson, Russell Grigg, Alenka Zupancic, Slavoj Žižek,Mladen Dolar, Catherine Malabou, Tim Dean, Steven Miller, Dominiek Hoens, Petar Ramadanovic, Sigi Jöttkandt, Colette Soler, Jelica Sumic and A. Kiarina Kordela.

 

A full and fascinating schedule of talks at the London-based Centre for Freudian Analysis and research was announced last month. Starting in September, the public lectures will run up until the beginning of December and will be accompanied by a parallel Introductory Course on psychoanalysis and a Short Course, which this term is on the topic of beginning the psychoanalytic treatment.

 

Across the water, the Irish Circle of the Lacanian Orientation in Dublin is hosting a series of seminars on Freud’s case histories, starting in October and running to the end of March 2014. Details of each can be found on their site.

 

What would be the benefits of collaboration between psychoanalysis and neuro-science? Perrine Ruby, a neuroscientist at the University of Lyon, published this short article in August which nicely summarises some of the interesting avenues that neuroscience is currently taking which lead it to converge paths with psychoanalysis. One particular instance is on what neuroscientists call UMEE (unconscious memories of experienced events), which point to the need for a re-conceptulalisation of memory in cognitive neuroscience.

 

The London-based reading group for Seminar VII resumes its meetings this Saturday, 7th September at 10:30-12:30. The new location is Room 420, Birkbeck College, Malet Street (entrance via Torrington Square). All are welcome. The reading picks up from session of 3rd February 1960, p.128 of the Dennis Porter translation. (There is a £15 contribution requested for hire of the room, £10 concessions).

 

The Toronto group LacanToronto.ca will begin its Lacan Unpacked Extension Course on Sunday 15th September at the Toronto Psychoanalytic Society. There are three sessions running into October advertised on the site here.

 

Finally, for French speakers (and indeed those that are not, but curious), in August Patrick Valas uploaded new recordings of several sessions from Lacan’s Seminar XXIII on Le Sinthome (The Sinthome) from 1975-76. Download them at his site here. At the bottom of the page there is also a new transcription of the Seminar itself.

 

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