First, new publications, and as heralded in last month’s update October saw the release of a new collection of seminars Lacan gave in the early seventies under the title Talking to Brick Walls. Published by Polity it is a translation of the French original, Je Parle aux Murs, from 2011. The English translation is by Adrian Price, under the editorship of Jacques-Alain Miller.

Released last month as part of the Palgrave Lacan Series was Adrian Johnston’s Irrepressible Truth: On Lacan’s ‘The Freudian Thing’, a close (paragraph-by-paragraph) reading of one of the major papers from Lacan’s Ecrits. Also from this series, Daniel Bristow’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Lacanian Psychoanalytic Theory is slated for release in December, looking at Lacan’s work through his contemporary, Kubrick, on overlapping themes such as cuts, space, silence, surrealty and das Ding.

Anouchka Grose’s From Anxiety to Zoolander: Notes on Psychoanalysis was published by Karnac in October. A collection of 20 essays, arranged alphabetically and based on her lectures at CFAR over the last decade or so, other topics include fashion, jokes, and war.

Alfie Brown’s The Playstation Dreamworld was released in the UK last month and will be out in the US from 13th November. Published by Polity, it approaches video games via Lacanian dream analysis and makes the case for the subversive political potential of gaming.

From the realm of neuropsychoanalysis, Catherine Morin’s Stroke, Body Image, and Self Representation: Psychoanalytic and Neurological Perspectives was published by Routledge in October. A member of Association Lacanienne Internationale and the International Society of Neuropsychoanalysis, Morin’s book looks at patients who have suffered a stroke and makes the case from a psychoanalytic perspective that self-representation cannot be considered only a cognitive operation.

On a similar theme, announced for publication in April next year is the collection Unconscious Incarnations: Psychoanalytic and Philosophical Perspectives on the Body, bringing together philosophers, psychoanalytic scholars, and clinical practitioners on the topic of “embodied life”. Their collective argument seeks to challenge “representationalist models” of the body and proposes instead an “incarnational approach to psychic life”.

On the subject of the neurosciences, Robert Samuels’ Psychoanalyzing the Politics of the New Brain Sciences will be released in February 2018. Samuels argues that “neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and behavioral economics often function as a political ideology masquerading as a new science”. In its place, he promises a psychoanalytic reading that draws on Freud and Lacan to counter what is repressed by what he calls “the drugging of discontent”: the unconscious and sexuality.

Looking further ahead, Ruth Ronen’s Lacan with the Philosophers was announced last month for publication in April. Ronen will show how Lacan’s engagement with the philosophers that interested him went well beyond the usual references for these thinkers (Kant, Pascal, and Aristotle are discussed in the book), yet concerned the same themes of truth, desire, and the unconscious that they shared.

Among the journals, check out the October edition of Psychoanalytic Discourse, an independent international journal for clinical, theoretical and cultural discussion of psychoanalysis. It is available free online, alongside its previous editions. (The October edition also contains my review of the new translation of Jean Laplanche’s Après-coup: Problématiques VI, which was published by Unconscious in Translation earlier this year).

Among upcoming events, the EuroFederation of Psychoanalysis is due to hold its Forum on the theme ‘Determined Desires for Democracy in Europe’ in Turin on 18th November. Ahead of this, the EFP has collected numerous commentaries on the theme of the conference from European Lacanians, and regional groups are holding preparatory seminars to discuss the issues it will raise. The London School, which earlier this year launched the Laboratory for Lacanian Politics in the UK, is holding a seminar on ‘The Lures and Logic of Democracy Today’ on Saturday 11th November. Details of all its events here.

In New York, Analytica’s programme of events for November includes an exploration of Freud’s auto-analysis and Jung’s Red Book, and a discussion of David Lynch’s work, which will be a prelude to Analytica’s conference on Lynchian Analysis (details of which to follow on Analytica’s site).

The Irish Circle of the Lacanian Orientation is running a seminar series called ‘Black Mirror Analysis’, in three parts, starting 17th November. Like the TV series of the same name, it will explore human subjectivity in the face of technological change. Full details here or on Facebook.

The Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) in New York will be hosting Bruce Fink on 2nd December for his presentation ‘Revolutions in Technique: Lacan’s R/evolution in Psychoanalysis’, in discussion with Patricia Gherovici. Fink’s most recent book, A Clinical Introduction to Freud, was published by Norton earlier this year.

The latest in the Jung-Lacan Dialogues series, organised by the Centre for Psychoanalysis at Middlesex University, will take place in London on 2nd December, with Dr Berjanet Jazani and David Henderson discussing ‘The Position of the Analyst’. The event is free and open to all. Register on Eventbrite.

To recap October’s events, a recording is now available – thanks to the Backdoor Broadcasting Company – of ‘Re-Reading the Revolution: Jean-Claude Milner in Conversation with Slavoj Žižek’ which took place at Birkbeck, University of London, on 6th October.

Likewise, Radio Lacan has a podcast of Gil Caroz’s presentation for Lacanian Compass last month on ‘The Ego of the Obsessional’. It was presented as part of the preparatory seminars for Lacanian Compass’s Clinical Study Days 11, on ‘The Delights of the Ego’, to be held in New York on February 9th-11th 2018.

Looking ahead to 2018, a conference on autism has been announced to take place in Barcelona next year. ‘After Childhood: Autism and Politics’ is scheduled for Saturday 7th April 2018 in Barcelona, organised by the Escuela lacaniana de psicoanalisisas, part of the WAP.

A call for papers has gone out for Lacan Salon’s LaConference 2018, which will take place in Vancouver, Canada, 6th-7th April next year. The theme will be ‘Lacan and the Environment’ (meant in both sociocultural and ecological senses) and proposals for papers are welcome from all theoretical backgrounds. Submissions to be sent by 1st February. Full details here.

The second Psychoanalysis on Ice conference has been announced for 26th-29th July 2018 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Registration is now open and a Call for Papers has been issued for submissions ahead of a 1st January deadline. Confirmed speakers include many prominent Lacanians but psychoanalysts and scholars of all orientations are welcome.

Finally, last month saw the exciting announcement of a 2018 Lacan Écrits conference, planned for next September in Ghent, Belgium. It will herald the release of the first volume of Lacan’s Écrits: A reader’s guide which brings together commentaries from various authors on each of the texts in the Écrits. The editors of that volume – Derek Hook, Calum Neill, and Stijn Vanheule – will chair the conference. A call for papers and website are expected in December.

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