Jacques Lacan: The Desire of the Other
Jacques Lacan always insisted that he was a thoroughgoing Freudian—perhaps the most orthodox Freudian of them all. A larger-than-life provocateur, Lacan’s oracular lectures and clinical innovations (including the notorious “short session”) ultimately led to his excommunication from the International Psychoanalytic Association. Yet, despite these departures from analytic orthodoxy, Lacan remained preoccupied with Freud’s writings, calling for a “return to Freud” while simultaneously offering robust critiques of ego psychology and object relations theories. In over two decades of public seminars and written work, Lacan performed a series of original readings of Freud that remain enormously influential to this day—in the fields ranging from literature to film studies, philosophy, and clinical psychoanalysis. This course will introduce participants to Lacan’s contributions to psychoanalysis through careful reading of selected excerpts from his Ecrits. We will discuss Lacan’s ideas about the structure of the unconscious, the Real, Imaginary, and Symbolic orders, the mirror stage, desire, and the ethics of analytic practice and clinical technique. The aim of the class will be to introduce fundamental Lacanian concepts in a way that highlights their clarity and distinctiveness.
Course Schedule
Sunday, 2:00-5:00pm ETNovember 19 — December 17, 2023
4 sessions over 5 weeks
Class will not meet Sunday, November 26th.
$335.00
Registration Open