| Lutecium a non-school of Lacanian/Freudian Psychoanalysis San Francisco, California |
| Freud/Lacan Seminar Series |
Starting with the Fall 08 session, this seminar series continues for a total of six trimesters (Winter 09, Spring 09, and throughout the
2009/2010 training year):
Los(s/t) Le(ad/ett)ers and Tumbling Dice
This lecture will begin to unpack the mystery of Lacan by focusing on Poe’s mystery of “The Purloined Letter.” We will follow Lacan’s
reading of this text, focusing on the structure of subjective positions, punctuating this with the play of chance in the game of odds and
evens. This will lead to a discussion of the lessons for a psychoanalyst contained within Poe’s text.
Recommended readings:
Lacan, J. ”Seminar on the ‘Purloined Letter” Ecrits
Fink, B. “Appendix 1& 2” The Lacanian Subject Princeton Univeristy Press (1997)
Three Way?
This lecture will focus on Lacan’s three concepts of the Real, the Symbolic and the Imaginary, psychic space and the petite objet a,
both as cause and consequence. This lecture will focus on the constitutive necessity of the third and the heresy this creates for logical
thinking.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, is there anyone at all?
This lecture will explore the mirror stage, contrasting Lacan’s perspective on the subjective transform which “humanizes” the infans,
setting the stage for the emergence of the parle l ‘etre, the speaking being who is for the letter.
Recommended readings:
Lacan, J. “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I function” Ecrits
Mueller, John Beyond the Psychoanalytic Dyad (1996) pp 1-74
The Unconscious is structured like a language
Following Lacan’s comments in his lecture, the class will attempt to explicate this aphorism. If possible, it is recommended that Students
access the Lutecium website and watch the film of this lecture.
Recommended readings:
Lacan, J. Television (1990)
SubjectEd One, Part A
This lecture will focus on Schema L, the structures of metaphor and metonymy, and the forced choices of alienation and separation in
the formation of the subject. This will lead to a discussion of the logical structures of the subject as mandated through one’s coming to
terms with the symbolic exploring the four fundamental clinical defenses elaborated by Freud , focusing on neurotic variations and
perversion.
Recommended readings:
Lacan, J. “The Instance of the Letter in the Unconscious” Ecrits
Lacanian Theory of Discourse Bracher, M. et. al. (eds) NYUP (1996)
SubjectEd One, Part B
This lecture will continue from the preceding with a shift in focus from the neurotic to the psychotic subject, using Schema R as a basis
to explore psychotic structure.
Recommended readings:
Lacan, J. “On a question prior to any possible treatment of psychosis” Ecrits
Love, Hate and Ignorance: Pathways to Transference
This lecture will focus on Lacan’s Seminar on Transference, tracing out how the major passions both mask and reveal the subject, the
position of the analyst, and the direction of the treatment.
Recommended readings:
Lacan, J. “Presentation on Transference” Ecrits
Lacan, J. “Variations on the Standard Treatment” Ecrits
Fink, B. Fundamentals of Psychoanalytic Technique W.W. Norton & Company (2007) pp 101-189
Aunt Tig on “E”
This lecture will focus on Sophocles’ Antigone, utilizing her journey as a way to understand the ethical position of the analyst, what is
un-neighborly about psychoanalysis, and to explicate Lacan’s notion of not giving way on one’s desire.
Recommended readings:
Lacan, J. Seminar VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis
An E)xit: Why?
This lecture will take as its focus anxiety, focusing on the formation of the subject in response to the lack of the Other.
Recommended readings:
Lacan, J. “Logical time and the assertion of anticipated certainty” Ecrits
Freud, S. “Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety”
Harari, R. Lacan’s Seminar on “Anxiety” (J.C. Lamb-Ruix, trans.) Other Press (2001)
The Graph of Desire
This lecture will explicate Lacan’s graph of desire, elaborating the structure of the operation of his theory to this point in his treaching.
Recommended readings:
Lacan, J. “The subversion of the subject and the dialects of desire in the Freudian unconscious” Ecrits
What is Psychoanalysis?
This lecture will attempt to distill Lacan’s teachings of Seminar XI.
Recommended readings:
Lacan, J. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis (A. Sheridan, trans.) W.W. Norton &
Company (1977)
Harari, R. Lacan’s Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis (J. Filc, trans.) Other Press (2004)
To speak, to chance to be
This lecture will focus on Lacan’s theory of discourse as he elaborated them in Seminar XVII, unpacking the structures of the four
discourses.
Recommended readings:
Lacan, J. The Other Side of Psychoanalysis (R. Grigg, trans) W.W. Norton & Company (2007)
Sic 6: Jacques Lacan and the Other side of Psychoanalysis J. Clemens & R. Grigg (eds) Duke UP (2006)
What is a Woman? And what the hell does she want?
This lecture will explicate the graph of sexuation, teasing apart the notions of sex, gender, identity, and identifications while attempting
to come to an understanding of Lacan’s phrase “There is no sexual relation.”
Recommended readings:
Lacan, J. Encore (B. Fink, trans) W.W. Norton & Company (1998)
Andre, S. What Does A Woman Want? (S. Fairfield, trans) Other Press (1999)
Sic 3: Sexuation R. Salecl (ed) Duke UP (2000)
Verhaeghe, P. Love in a time of Loneliness Other Press (1999)
Quantal Logic and a second break
This lecture will return to consider psychotic structure and an approach to the treatment of psychosis as formulated by W. Apollon and
GIFRIC.
Recommended readings:
Apollon, W., et. al. After Lacan: Clinical Practice and the Subject of the Unconscious SUNY Press (2002)
Family complexities
This lecture will focus on the logical and necessary conditions in the structure of the family required for the formation of a stable
subject. This will include a discussion of frustration, privation, and castration, the function of the father in the three registers, and will
look at a Lacanian approach to family treatment.
Psychoanalytic techniques
The intention of this lecture is to look again at the nature and structure of an analytic act, the goals of psychoanalysis, and to explore
guidelines in conducting a cure.
Recommended readings:
Lacan, J. “The Freudian Thing” Ecrits
Lacan, J. Seminar I: Freud’s Papers on Technique (J. Forrester, trans) W.W. Norton & Company (1988)
Lacan, J. Seminar II: The Ego in Freud’s Theory (S. Tomaselli, trans) W.W. Norton & Company (1988)
Fink, B. Fundamentals of Psychoanalytic Technique W.W. Norton & Company (2007)
Oh no! Not knots!
This lecture will begin a discussion of topology, Borromean knots, and the sinthome, focusing on the stabilizing effects of a fourth in a
structure of three.
Recommended readings:
Harari, R. How James Joyce Made His Name (L. Thurston, trans) Other Press (2002)
Oh no! Not knots again!
This lecture will utilize the dissolution of the stable Borromean structure to interrogate the diagnostic categories of DSM IV, looking at
treatment from a Lacanian perspective.
| Lacan Section John Gasperoni, Ph.D. Complete Seminar Outline |