Ljubljana school of psychoanalysis ( sl, Ljubljanska psihoanalitska šola or ), also known as the Ljubljana Lacanian School ( sl, Ljubljanska lakanovska šola) is a popular name for a school of thought centred on the Society for Theoretical Psychoanalysis based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Philosophers related to School include

Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New Y ...

Rastko Močnik Rastko Močnik (born 27 August 1944) is a Slovenian sociologist, psychoanalyst, literary theorist, translator and political activist. Together with Slavoj Žižek and Mladen Dolar, he is considered one of the co-founders of the Ljubljana sch ...

Mladen Dolar Mladen Dolar (born 29 January 1951) is a Slovene philosopher, psychoanalyst, cultural theorist and film critic. Dolar was born in Maribor as the son of the literary critic Jaro Dolar. In 1978 he graduated in Philosophy and French language at ...

Alenka Zupančič Alenka Zupančič (born 1 April 1966) is a Slovenian philosopher whose work focuses on psychoanalysis and continental philosophy. She is a Slovenian psychoanalytic theorist and philosopher who along with Mladen Dolar and Slavoj Žižek have in l ...

Miran Božovič Miran Božovič (born August 12, 1957) is a Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst, associated with the Ljubljana school of psychoanalysis. Božovič was born in Ljubljana. He holds a degree in comparative literature and philosophy from the Univ ...

and Eva Bahovec. Other scholars associated with the school include philosophers Zdravko Kobe, Rado Riha, Jelica Šumič Riha, sociologist

Renata Salecl Renata Salecl (born 1962) is a Slovene philosopher, sociologist and legal theorist. She is a senior researcher at the Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana, and holds a professorship at Birkbeck College, Univ ...

and philosopher Peter Klepec.

Historical background

The school was founded in the late 1970s by young Slovenian followers of the theories of the French

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: + . is a set of Theory, theories and Therapy, therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a bo ...

Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and pu ...

, in what was then the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Founding members of the school included

and

. Their main aim was to bring together the philosophy of German idealism, Marxism and psychoanalytic theories as a means of analysis of contemporary social, cultural and political phenomena. The school rose to prominence in the international academic environment in the 1990s. The school never engaged in Lacanian psychoanalysis. The group was formed around a young generation of

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

students at the University of Ljubljana, in Socialist Slovenia. Contrary to their older colleagues, affiliated with the

Praxis school The Praxis school was a Marxist humanist philosophical cycle, whose members were influenced by Western Marxism. It originated in Zagreb in the SFR Yugoslavia, during the 1960s. Prominent school's theorists include Gajo Petrović and Milan Kangr ...

, these young students rejected

Marxist humanism Marxist humanism is an international body of thought and political action rooted in an interpretation of the works of Karl Marx. It is an investigation into "what human nature consists of and what sort of society would be most conducive to huma ...

and turned towards the "

antihumanism In social theory and philosophy, antihumanism or anti-humanism is a theory that is critical of traditional humanism, traditional ideas about humanity and the human condition. Central to antihumanism is the view that philosophical anthropology an ...

" of the French Marxist philosopher

Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser ...

and, to a lesser extent, to the Frankfurt School. The main goal of the Ljubljana School was to re-interpret Marxism by emphasizing the rootedness of Karl Marx's thought in the tradition of German idealism. They favoured an anti-historicist interpretation of

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

's philosophy, with an emphasis on his epistemology and dialectic philosophy. Most of the members of the Ljubljana school have been indebted to the Slovenian Marxist

Božidar Debenjak Božidar Debenjak (born 7 May 1935) is a Slovenian Marxist philosopher, social theorist and translator. Biography He was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1961, he became professor at the University of Ljubl ...

, professor of philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, renowned for his attentive reading of German idealism, who introduced the Frankfurt School in Slovenia. A specific feature of the Ljubljana School was to connect the Marxist and Hegelian traditions with Lacanian psychoanalysis and with

Structuralism In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...

. The combined reading of Lacan, German idealism (especially Hegel), Marx, the Frankfurt school and authors from the structuralist tradition, especially Claude Lévi-Strauss, has since been the distinctive feature of the Ljubljana School.

Theoretical work

The Ljubljana School of Psychoanalysis focuses on the following areas: *readings of modern and classical philosophy (especially German idealism) through the theory of Jacques Lacan; *elaboration of Lacanian theories of ideology and power (both of the Communist regime in the 1980s and the liberal democracy after 1990); *analysis of culture and art, with a special emphasis on cinema.

Institutional frame

The school first emerged in the late 1970s as a distinct intellectual group within the alternative journal '' Problemi''. Since the mid-1960s, this journal served as the only alternative media in Slovenia where critical and dissenting opinions against the mainstream

Titoist Titoism is a political philosophy most closely associated with Josip Broz Tito during the Cold War. It is characterized by a broad Yugoslav identity, workers' self-management, a political separation from the Soviet Union, and leadership in the ...

ideology could be heard. The journal thus hosted an extremely wide range of contributors, from apolitical modernist literates, civic nationalists, conservatives, liberals, social democrats up to radical Marxists, Lacanians and followers of the Frankfurt school. By the early 1980s, the tensions within the editorial board reached their height, causing the more conservative and non-Marxist contributors to publicly petition the authorities of the

Socialist Republic of Slovenia The Socialist Republic of Slovenia ( sl, Socialistična republika Slovenija, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Slovenija, Социјалистичка Република Словенија), commonly referred to as Sociali ...

to be allowed to establish their own journal. Their demands were accepted in 1981, where a new alternative journal, the '' Nova revija'', was founded. From then on, the followers of the Ljubljana School gradually took over the journal ''Problemi'', transforming it into the main platform of their intellectual activities. In 1985, the journal ''Problemi'' launched the ''Analecta'' book series, publishing more than 60 monographs since, mostly translations of classical and contemporary philosophers (e.g. Spinoza,

Hume Hume most commonly refers to: * David Hume (1711–1776), Scottish philosopher Hume may also refer to: People * Hume (surname) * Hume (given name) * James Hume Nisbet (1849–1923), Scottish-born novelist and artist In fiction * Hume, the ...

, Kant, Derrida, Lyotard and

Badiou Alain Badiou (; ; born 17 January 1937) is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École normale supérieure (ENS) and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Fouca ...

), as well as Slovene authors. In the late 1980s, the Society for Theoretical Psychoanalysis was founded as the central coordinating body of publishing and editorial activities of the group. The current president of the society is

. Nevertheless, the academic activity has mostly been taking place within the University of Ljubljana and the various institutes and departments associated to it (such as the Faculty of Arts and the Institute for Sociology) and the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Controversy

The popular name of "Ljubljana School of Psychoanalysis" is seen as problematic by some, since none of its members is a practicing psychoanalyst. The issue was raised by The Slovenian Society For Lacanian Psychoanalysis in 2015. The Slovene Society for Theoretical Analysis, around which the popular name is centered, responded that its work is "focused on intersections and encounters between philosophy and psychoanalysis. It has never pretended to deal with anything else but the theoretical psychoanalysis, and this entails no conflict with psychoanalytic practice nor has anyone ever maintained that the one would be a replacement for the other." In 2016 the Slovenian Lacanian psychoanalyst Nina Krajnik launched an international initiative with the claim that Ljubljana School tried to prevent the presence of the Lacanian psychoanalysis in Slovenia and that several academic articles of the members of Ljubljana School are based on plagiarism. In 2017 the World Association for Psychoanalysis gave a support to Krajnik's claim.

Debates

Members of the Slovenian School of Psychoanalysis have engaged in a number of high profile debates.

Slavoj Zizek Slavoj may refer to: * Karel Slavoj Amerling (1807–1884), Czech teacher, writer, and philosopher * Slavoj Černý (born 1937), Czech former cyclist *Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultu ...

engaged in a noted debated with the University of Toronto Psychology Professor

Jordan Peterson Jordan Bernt Peterson (born 12 June 1962) is a Canadian media personality, clinical psychologist, author, and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. He began to receive widespread attention as a public intellectual in the late 2010s ...

in Canada about happiness and communism.

has also engaged in friendly debates with the Canadian sociologist

Duane Rousselle Duane Rousselle (born April 28, 1982) is a Canadian sociological theorist, Lacanian psychoanalyst, and professor of sociology. He works in several academic fields including Social Movement Studies, Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Cultural Sociology, ...

about limitations to the Slovenian School paradigm. Rousselle argues for a paradigm shift which restitutes the presuppositions of the Slovenian School into a different register.

References

Sources

The Times Higher Education Supplement
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External links

Website of the Society for Theoretical Psychoanalysis, Ljubljana
Psychoanalytic schools Continental philosophy School of psychoanalysis Slavoj Žižek