A series of free public seminars running from January to May are being convened in London by the MA in Psychoanalysis at Kingston University and the London Society of the New Lacanian School. On the topic ‘The Speaking Body is Today’s Unconscious’ the seminars will be led by some of the most prominent Lacanian practitioners in the world. Booking is essential; details of each talk and how to reserve are here.
The Freud Museum, London has announced a conference on Psychosis and Psychoanalysis for 20th March, in collaboration with the Psychosis Therapy Project. Speakers informed by a Lacanian orientation include Jay Watts, Stijn Vanheule, and Christos Tombras. Booking for the event and further details are available here.
The Serbian Society of the School of the Freudian Letter is organising its 1st Congress, under the aegis of the SFL, London, in Belgrade on 16th-20th February. The organisers write, “This psychoanalytic congress is focused on the human being, that is the speaking being within civilization and its discontents.” Presentations and study groups will take place on various themes in English, and attendance is free. A link to the current agenda and list of speakers is available on the event’s Facebook page. Further details on the schedule and venue will be announced there soon.
In London, CFAR has announced the timetable of its events for the start of the year. Its Short Course for the spring of 2016 will be on ‘Lacan’s Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis’, the title he gave his eleventh Seminar from 1963-4. Starting on 23rd January the four seminars will run until 13th February. Meanwhile, as part of its public lecture series, announced for late January CFAR will also be dedicating a session to the launch of Hysteria Today, a collection of contributions on the subject by the analysts of the Centre, published as part of its Library Series. It is currently available to buy in the UK, and will shortly be available in the US as well.
A new site by Loic Toubel uses Henry Krutzen’s majestirial Index of Lacan’s Seminar to catalogue alphabetically references made by Lacan on specific issues and concepts. The index is in French but English speakers need only know the French translation of the term or concept they are searching for in order to find the references in the Seminar, and then look these up in the English translations. As more references in text, audio and video are uploaded anyone interested is invited to join the group set up to discuss and monitor these here.
The next NLS Congress on ‘Discreet Signs in Ordinary Psychosis – taking place in Dublin in July next year – has launched its official blog at http://www.nlscongress.org/, along with its Facebook and Twitter presences. Registration is now open to all here. As hotel availability is likely to be limited those wishing to attend are recommended to book as soon as possible.
In Ireland, Domenico Cosenza will be the guest of the Irish Circle of the NLS on 6th February to give a talk on ‘Body and Language in Eating Disorders’. Cosenza practices in Italy and is the current President of the Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis, having written in depth on this topic before. The link with more details and how to sign up is here. Reports on the Circle’s recent activities are also available on their site.
Jean-Gerard Bursztein has been holding seminars in London for a number of years conducting topological readings of Freud’s texts and discussing the application of this branch of mathematics to psychoanalysis, tracing Lacan’s late interest in it during the 1970s. In December he published The Topological Transformation of Freud’s Theory, first published in French in 2009 as Une Introduction à la science psychanalytique. Rather than discussing this period of Lacan’s teaching alone, the scope of the book ranges across psychoanalytic theory from Freud to Lacan – including, for example, the passage from the death drive to the concept of jouissance – using topology to orientate the study. It is available from publishers Karnac Books now.
Also published last month was Samo Tomšič’s The Capitalist Unconscious: Marx and Lacan, a study of the connection between the two thinkers’ works and the capacity of psychoanalysis to reaffirm dialectical and materialist thought. Surprisingly, as Lacanian thinker Alenka Zupančič notes, it is the first book-length study of Lacan’s reading of Marx in the English language.
The Lacan Circle of Melbourne launched its free online journal last month, entitled Psychoanalysis Lacan. The inaugural edition contains several testimonies of the pass – the theme of the first issue – and contributions to the contemporary problems of psychoanalysis. Here is the link to the editorial by Russell Grigg. The journal will appear once a year.
The Lacan Society in China and Hong Kong has announced the formation of a new cartel on Lacan’s Seminar X, Anxiety, to start in January. The group will be run online in English with Chinese language translations, and those interested in reading the text are invited to contact the Society to enquire about joining.
Penny Georgiou of the London Society of the NLS will be continuing the seminar series ‘Lacan on Freud and Hamlet – Seminar VI’ on Monday 11th January, at 7pm in Room 104 Brunei Gallery, London. Georgiou’s paper, ‘Lacan’s Hamlet’ is available here for those interested in preparatory reading.
Finally, for French speakers, published last month was the latest edition of the journal Mental, number 33, entitled Suis-je victime? (Am I a victim?) In the wake of the Paris attacks in November it features articles on this and associated issues by Eric Laurent, Miguel Bassols, and Deborah Gutermann-Jacquet, among others. It can be bought from the bookshop of the École de la Cause freudienne.
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