| Lutecium a non-school of Lacanian/Freudian Psychoanalysis San Francisco, California |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ For important system/technical requirements to participate in the seminar click Here |
| Distance Learning - Online Seminar THE SYMPTOM OF HISTORY’S DEADLOCK; OR, THE FEMINO-PSYCHOANALYTIC BREAKOUT! with Katerina Kolozova, Ph.D. and Creston Davis, Ph.D. January 14-15, 2012 10am - 12:30pm (Pacific Time) _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ |
The Symptom:
.
There’s an old joke, “How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?”
The answer, “Only one, but the light bulb has to really want to change!” As my
friend, Bruce Fink nicely glosses this joke, the problem here is that it supposes the
patient actually wants to change. Yet Freudian/Lacanian psychoanalysis maintains
the opposite stance, namely that the patient may say they want to be relieved of his
or her symptoms, but in fact, the patient not only doesn’t want to change, they more
precisely enjoy their symptoms because as Bruce Fink says, “they provide
satisfaction of one kind or another, even though it may not be obvious to outside
observers or even to the individual saddled with the symptoms.”[1] Of course there
.
There’s an old joke, “How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?”
The answer, “Only one, but the light bulb has to really want to change!” As my
friend, Bruce Fink nicely glosses this joke, the problem here is that it supposes the
patient actually wants to change. Yet Freudian/Lacanian psychoanalysis maintains
the opposite stance, namely that the patient may say they want to be relieved of his
or her symptoms, but in fact, the patient not only doesn’t want to change, they more
precisely enjoy their symptoms because as Bruce Fink says, “they provide
satisfaction of one kind or another, even though it may not be obvious to outside
observers or even to the individual saddled with the symptoms.”[1] Of course there
are many different kinds of symptoms: obsessive-compulsive behavior, gambling, alcohol, drug, sex addiction, and so forth.
But this seminar will begin with a symptom organized by the general state of things in our time and from which we are all
suffering and, yes, even enjoying. The symptom could be called something like, a universal loss of desire. The symptom is
Zombie, a living death! Moreover this “Zombie” state is a symptom that maintains that most of us have lost our desire to live
(even if we don’t recognize this loss).
But this seminar will begin with a symptom organized by the general state of things in our time and from which we are all
suffering and, yes, even enjoying. The symptom could be called something like, a universal loss of desire. The symptom is
Zombie, a living death! Moreover this “Zombie” state is a symptom that maintains that most of us have lost our desire to live
(even if we don’t recognize this loss).
History has arrived at an uncanny deadlock in which all areas of life, from social and economic
exchange (capitalism), to the overly rationalized work and play spaces, to mass pharmaceutical
addiction, to political pretense, to global energy and climate crisis, education and religious
regimes, to a suffocating “traditional family” Christian idealization, and even the food we eat.
On every level our lives have hit a deadlock that neutralizes desire to live a healthy, fulfilled life.
This seminar will take as its starting point this Zombie symptom of desire’s death that plagues
our existence. There are many ways that a symptom can be exposed, so our seminar will focus
on the core-psychoanalytical concept of “The Real” that is, the state of nature from which we
have been forever severed by our entrance into language. The “Real” always already was
birthed in the primordial pre-consciousness state and so it remains in a state of loss and yet its
exchange (capitalism), to the overly rationalized work and play spaces, to mass pharmaceutical
addiction, to political pretense, to global energy and climate crisis, education and religious
regimes, to a suffocating “traditional family” Christian idealization, and even the food we eat.
On every level our lives have hit a deadlock that neutralizes desire to live a healthy, fulfilled life.
This seminar will take as its starting point this Zombie symptom of desire’s death that plagues
our existence. There are many ways that a symptom can be exposed, so our seminar will focus
on the core-psychoanalytical concept of “The Real” that is, the state of nature from which we
have been forever severed by our entrance into language. The “Real” always already was
birthed in the primordial pre-consciousness state and so it remains in a state of loss and yet its
presence elusively persists and haunts language, our identity, the core truth of life as such. In particular, we will focus our
attention on the work of Feminist, philosopher, and psychoanalyst, Katerina Kolozova’s work on how the “Real” functions as
she takes her cues from Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, Francois Laruelle, and Judith Butler.
_________________________
[1] Bruce Fink, A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Theory & Technique, (Harvard University Press, 1997) p. 4.
attention on the work of Feminist, philosopher, and psychoanalyst, Katerina Kolozova’s work on how the “Real” functions as
she takes her cues from Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, Francois Laruelle, and Judith Butler.
_________________________
[1] Bruce Fink, A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Theory & Technique, (Harvard University Press, 1997) p. 4.
| _________________________________________________________________________ This seminar will have two sessions: Saturday, January 14, 2012, 10am - 12:30pm (Pacific Time) “The Real: Freud, Lacan, Zizek, & Laruelle” Sunday, January 15, 2012, 10am - 12:30pm (Pacific Time) “The Real: A Feminist and a Non-Philosophical Take” Seminar Fee: $75 / Lutecium Members: $20 For more information about Lutecium membership click Here |
| ___________________________________________________________________________________ |
Seminar Leaders:
Dr. Katerina Kolozova is Professor of philosophy, gender studies, and psychoanalytic theory at the University American
College-Skopje. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and besides in her home institution, she also teaches at several
universities in Former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria (Universities of Skopje, Sarajevo, Belgrade and Sofia). During 2008-2009,
Katerina Kolozova was a visiting scholar at the Department of Rhetoric-Program of Critical Theory at the University of
California-Berkeley. She is the author of The Lived Revolution: Solidarity with the Body in Pain as the New Political
Universal (2010; in English), The Real and ‘I’: On the Limit and the Self (2006; in English), Conversations with Judith Butler:
The Crisis of the Subject” with Judith Butler and Zarko Trajanovski (2002 in English and in Macedonian), The Death and
the Greeks: On Tragic Concepts of Death from Antiquity to Modernity (2000 in Macedonian), and editor of a number of
books from the fields of gender studies and feminist theory, among which the latest co-edited together with Svetlana
Slapshak and Jelisaveta Blagojevic Gender and Identity: Theories from/on Southeastern Europe, Belgrade: Belgrade
Women’s Studies and Gender Research Center and Athena Network, 2006 (in English). She is also Editor in Chief of the
Journal in Politics, Gender and Culture Identities, member of the Non-Philosophical Society (ONPHI), of AOIFE and the
European Network for Gender and Women’s Studies -ATHENA (now AtGender). She is working on two publications
including a monograph entitle The Cut of the Real (forthcoming with Columbia University Press with an Introduction by
Creston Davis), and an edited volume on Feminist and Queer theory with Creston Davis & Margaret McLaren.
Dr. Creston Davis is based in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida. He is the
author of Truth After the Death of Meaning and The Contradictions of America: A Mediation on Jefferson’s Monticello. He
has co-authored, Paul’s New Moment (with Slavoj Zizek & John Milbank) and The Monstrosity of Christ and edited Hegel
and the Infinite (with Clayton Crockett and Slavoj Zizek), and Theology and the Political (with Zizek and Milbank). He is on
faculty at the Lutecium Psychoanalytic Group (San Francisco) and is working on a book with Katerinia Kolozova and
Margaret McLaren on Feminist and Queer theory along with his book on Hegel forthcoming with Columbia University Press.
Dr. Katerina Kolozova is Professor of philosophy, gender studies, and psychoanalytic theory at the University American
College-Skopje. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and besides in her home institution, she also teaches at several
universities in Former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria (Universities of Skopje, Sarajevo, Belgrade and Sofia). During 2008-2009,
Katerina Kolozova was a visiting scholar at the Department of Rhetoric-Program of Critical Theory at the University of
California-Berkeley. She is the author of The Lived Revolution: Solidarity with the Body in Pain as the New Political
Universal (2010; in English), The Real and ‘I’: On the Limit and the Self (2006; in English), Conversations with Judith Butler:
The Crisis of the Subject” with Judith Butler and Zarko Trajanovski (2002 in English and in Macedonian), The Death and
the Greeks: On Tragic Concepts of Death from Antiquity to Modernity (2000 in Macedonian), and editor of a number of
books from the fields of gender studies and feminist theory, among which the latest co-edited together with Svetlana
Slapshak and Jelisaveta Blagojevic Gender and Identity: Theories from/on Southeastern Europe, Belgrade: Belgrade
Women’s Studies and Gender Research Center and Athena Network, 2006 (in English). She is also Editor in Chief of the
Journal in Politics, Gender and Culture Identities, member of the Non-Philosophical Society (ONPHI), of AOIFE and the
European Network for Gender and Women’s Studies -ATHENA (now AtGender). She is working on two publications
including a monograph entitle The Cut of the Real (forthcoming with Columbia University Press with an Introduction by
Creston Davis), and an edited volume on Feminist and Queer theory with Creston Davis & Margaret McLaren.
Dr. Creston Davis is based in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida. He is the
author of Truth After the Death of Meaning and The Contradictions of America: A Mediation on Jefferson’s Monticello. He
has co-authored, Paul’s New Moment (with Slavoj Zizek & John Milbank) and The Monstrosity of Christ and edited Hegel
and the Infinite (with Clayton Crockett and Slavoj Zizek), and Theology and the Political (with Zizek and Milbank). He is on
faculty at the Lutecium Psychoanalytic Group (San Francisco) and is working on a book with Katerinia Kolozova and
Margaret McLaren on Feminist and Queer theory along with his book on Hegel forthcoming with Columbia University Press.