April saw the meeting of the Xth Congress of the World Association of Psychoanalysis in Rio to study the theme ‘The Speaking Body: on the Unconscious in the 21st Century’. Radio Lacan has a number of recordings from the event, though only in Portuguese, Spanish and French. Among them however is audio of the opening address by Miguel Bassols and Marcus André Vieira, and interviews with some of the participants, including Oscar Zack, François Ansermet, Jorge Forbes, Fabian Naparstek, Jorge Chamorro and Dominique Holvoet. Published in April just ahead of Rio, the French-language newsletter Lacan Quotidien also has an interview with Eric Laurent by André Vieira on the subject of the conference. Le corps parlant : L’inconscient et les marques de nos expériences de jouissance is available here.

With the NLS Congress on ordinary psychosis due to take place in Dublin at the start of July – and only 42 places remaining – more texts providing an orientation for the theme were published in April. They are collated on the Congress’s site, as mostly short, readable snippets pertinent to the theme from Lacanian analysts including Jacques-Alain Miller, Eric Laurent, and others. Of particular note is François Sauvagnat’s review of classical psychiatric phenomena and how they can harbour signs of ordinary psychosis. Additionally, Julia Evans at LacanianWorks has also compiled a list of texts on the theme, which can be found here.

Among events coming up in May, three in New York City are worth highlighting. Firstly, the Association for Psychoanalytic Medicine will be hosting a symposium on 6th-7th May in New York City entitled ‘On the Body’. Speakers will include internationally recognised names in the field of Lacanian psychoanalysis including Julia Kristeva, Juliet Mitchell, Sherry Turkle, Paul Verhaeghe, and Patricia Gherovici. Register here.

Secondly, on the same weekend Paul Verhaeghe will be the guest at Das Unbehagen – ‘A free association for psychoanalysis’ – for an event on Friday 6th May. Verhaeghe is Senior Professor of psychoanalysis at the University of Ghent and author of many fine Lacanian books, including his most recent What About Me? The Struggle for Identity in a Market-Based Society. For those not able to attend in person, text of one of his most recent addresses on the same topic, given in Brussels last November, is available here.

Additionally, Das Unbehagen and the New School Lacan Salon will also be organising a series of seminars with Marcus Coelen on ‘Schreber – Text and Transference’ from 17th-31st May in New York City. As preparatory reading, Freud’s original commentary on Schreber’s Memoirs, Lacan’s paper from the Écrits in which he discusses them, and the Memoirs themselves, are available here.

Elsewhere, in the first weekend in May, Petros Patounas of the Cyprus Society of the School of the Freudian Letter will be continuing his seminar series on ‘The object of the respiratory drive’ with a seminar on Saturday 7th May in Limassol, Cyprus. The seminar is titled ‘On the Aesthetics of Objektvorstellung. The link for more details is here.

Penny Georgiou and Richard Klein will organise the latest in the series of study group meetings on Lacan’s Seminar VI, reconvening on 9th May in London, and then again on 6th June and 11th July, in London. For the next session on 9th May the reference will be to chapters 18 and 19 of the Seminar. The group will meet 7-8:30pm in the Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London, Room B103.

Coming up on 18th June, Dr Cécile McKenna will be facilitating the last of her seminars on Lacan’s reading of Freud’s cases histories, convened with The San Francisco Bay Area Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Lacan Group. Full details, including of the texts to be discussed, are on her site. Two seminars are planned for the 2016-2017 year so keep an eye on this page for more details to follow.

Among publications, Eric Laurent will publish his latest book, L’envers de la biopolitique: Une écriture pour la jouissance in France on 6th May. Laurent uses the book to argue that, whereas biopolitics presents the body as cut from images and slogans, on the Lacanian view it is the enjoying body, the body of jouissance, which escapes all ready-made identifications. Insofar as psychoanalysis treats the body it does so as a body which is overwhelmed, traumatised, by jouissance. Laurent looks at the late teaching of Lacan (following Jacques-Alain Miller’s reading), and Lacan’s late reconceptualisation of the symptom as something that produces effects of creation, whether artistic or otherwise. The book is available to pre-order here.

Lacanians may be interested to know that publishers Routledge is offering free access until January 2017 to a selection of articles from its psychoanalysis journals portfolio, focussing on the ‘Pioneers of Psychoanalysis’. Although no works by Lacan himself are offered, Lacanians will be able to download classical papers by Freud, Ferenczi, Erich Fromm and others.

As mentioned in January’s news update, George Makari’s new book Soul Machine is an excellent follow-up to his 2008 Revolution in Mind on the history of psychoanalysis. Makari will be speaking about the new book, which chronicles the development of the idea of the mind and mental processing, at the Freud Museum, London on 24th May. A link to reserve tickets is here.

Finally, as many will remember the conference Faire Couple, the 45e Journées de l’Ecole de la Cause freudienne, was due to be held in Paris on 14th and 15th November last year. As a result of the terrorist attacks in the city that weekend the event was postponed. Now however the latest edition of the journal La cause du désir, no 92, presents some of the material that formed the basis for the conference and provided its coordinates. Alternatively, an ebook compiled under the direction of Christiane Alberti and comprising analysts’ responses to 22 questions on the conference’s theme is available to download.

Got news? Get in touch.