INTRODUCTION TO THE CONCEPTS OF THE LACANIAN CLINIC

Short Seminar, February 2021

This month-long seminar will approach some fundamental ideas of Lacanian psychoanalysis beginning from the most immediate empirical phenomenon of the clinic, namely: the patient’s speech. How do we conceive of what is happening when a patient speaks to a clinician? Such, indeed, is the best introduction to the Lacanian clinic, whose concepts are fashioned right out of elemental formations of sound and language.

Our objective in this course is less didactic than conceptual: the aim is to equip you not so much with a set of technical terms or even clinical techniques, but more basically with an understanding of the mode of thinking underlying the very question of technique. Broadly, we will tackle the question of speech and language as central figures of the clinic, touching on two cornerstones of Lacanian theory: analysis as work with the unconscious, and the unconscious as structured like a language. Thus we will move through the concepts of demand, desire, jouissance, imaginary, symbolic, and real, as well as fantasy, structure, subject and signifier, that characterize and distinguish the Lacanian clinical field. 

There are no prerequisites for this seminar other than your interest and curiosity. Committed participants will be provided with the syllabus and reading list a week prior to the seminar.

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Date and Time: Fridays, Feb 5th, Feb 12th, Feb 19th & Feb 26th 2021, 3-5pm 

Fee: $200 for entire seminar, $50 per session

Location: Online (Zoom), Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis, Oakland, CA. 

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For more details, please reach out to me by email or in the contact form provided on my home page.