From 1952 to 1980
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 ...
and
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...
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 ...
gave an annual
seminar
A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some parti ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. The ''Books'' of the Seminar are edited by
Jacques-Alain Miller
Jacques-Alain Miller (; born 14 February 1944) is a psychoanalyst and writer. He is one of the founder members of the École de la Cause freudienne (School of the Freudian Cause) and the World Association of Psychoanalysis which he presided from ...
.
History
In 1951, Lacan, then a member of the
Paris Psychoanalytic Society
The Paris Psychoanalytical Society (SPP) is the oldest psychoanalytical organisation in France. Founded with Freud’s endorsement in 1926, the S.P.P. is a component member of the International Psychoanalytical Association (I.P.A.) as well as of t ...
, initiated a series of weekly Wednesday meetings in his apartment on Rue de Lille, Paris. In 1952, the meetings were transferred to the
Sainte-Anne Hospital where Lacan worked as a consultant psychiatrist. ''Book I'' of the seminar is the edited transcription of the 1953–1954 weekly lessons at Sainte-Anne, where the Seminar would be held until 1963.
The final seminar to be held at Sainte-Anne is published as ''Book X'' (''Anxiety'', 1962–1963). The single lesson delivered on 20 November 1963 and published as "Introduction to the Names-of-the-Father Seminar" is the introduction to a seminar that was never delivered, and which has thus been dubbed ''The Inexistent Seminar''. Indeed, the night before this lesson, Lacan had been informed that the SFP "had voted, in a complicated procedure, to refuse to ratify the motion striking Lacan's name from the list of the training analysts", thus stripping Lacan of the right to continue as a training analyst within the
International Psychoanalytical Association
The International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) is an association including 12,000 psychoanalysts as members and works with 70 constituent organizations. It was founded in 1910 by Sigmund Freud, from an idea proposed by Sándor Ferenczi.
His ...
. This institutional manoeuvre effectively brought to a close the early period of Lacan's teaching.
The middle period of Lacan's teaching began two months later with ''
The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis
''The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis'' is the 1978 English-language translation of a seminar held by Jacques Lacan. The original (french: Le séminaire. Livre XI. Les quatre concepts fondamentaux de la psychanalyse) was published in P ...
''. Hosted by the
École Normale Supérieure
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
, under the patronage of the
School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences
The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and ''grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...
, the Seminar now enjoyed "a much larger audience" and represented a "change of front". This series of lessons, now edited as ''Book XI'' of the Seminar, opens with the lesson "Excommunication" in which Lacan expands on the circumstances and implications of his exclusion from the IPA. The second lesson, "The Freudian Unconscious and Ours" sets the tone of his ensuing teaching by indicating potential points of discontinuity with respect to
Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...
's oeuvre.
Lacan's yearly Seminar continued at the École normale supérieure until 1969. From autumn 1969 onwards, it was hosted by the
Law Faculty at
Place du Panthéon
The Place du Panthéon ( las dy pɑ̃teɔ̃ is a square in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. Located in the Latin Quarter, it is named after and surrounds the Panthéon.
Rue Soufflot, west of the Place du Panthéon, runs towards Bouleva ...
. This series of seminars, the late period of Lacan's teaching, opened with ''The Other Side of Psychoanalysis'', now edited as ''Book XVII'' of the Seminar, and continued until the late seventies.
As Lacan's teaching moved into the phase known as the ''very late teaching of Lacan'', his declining health led to less regular appointments. Lacan's final public delivery on 12 July 1980, sometimes referred to as "The Caracas Seminar" was not, as this title indicates, part of the Parisian series.
Transcription
From the very first seminar at Sainte-Anne, the weekly sessions were recorded by a
shorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...
typist. For two decades, copies of these typescripts were the only available record of Lacan's oral teaching, Lacan himself having declined the various offers extended to him to have the typescripts edited into publishable volumes.
In the early seventies, Jacques-Alain Miller offered some indications as to what would constitute an effective editorial strategy and at Lacan's invitation drew up a transcription of the twenty lessons that made up the eleventh seminar, ''The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis'' delivered in 1964. The result pleased Lacan, and
François Wahl François Wahl (13 May 1925 - 15 September 2014) was a French editor and structuralist.
Biography
François Wahl was editor at the Éditions du Seuil, a publishing company in Paris.Bill Marshall, ''France and the Americas: Culture, Politics, an ...
at Éditions du Seuil was happy to publish.
Seminar XI was published in 1973. In his "Postface", Lacan writes: "A transcription, now here is a word I am discovering thanks to the modesty of J. A. M., Jacques-Alain Miller by name: what gets read passes through the writing whilst surviving there intact". Lacan had said to Miller, "we will sign it together", but Miller had preferred to opt for a more discreet "Text established by…", a nod to the editing credits to the Greek and Latin texts in the
Collection Budé
The ''Collection Budé'', or the ''Collection des Universités de France'', is an editorial collection comprising the Greek and Latin classics up to the middle of the 6th century (before Emperor Justinian). It is published by Les Belles Lettres, ...
.
Both Lacan and Wahl were keen for more seminars to be published and Lacan entrusted the task to Miller.
[Miller, Jacques-Alain "Le démon de Lacan". ''Le diable probablement'' 9 p. 130] Four more books of the Seminar were published during Lacan's lifetime. The first to be translated into English was ''Book XI'', published by
Hogarth Press
The Hogarth Press is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that was founded as an independent company in 1917 by British authors Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in Richmond (then in Surrey and now ...
in 1977 with a specially written preface. To date (2015), seventeen of the seminars have been published in French, several of which have also appeared in English translation. The remaining seminars have all been established by Miller and are currently awaiting publication. As of 2013, the Books of the Seminar will be published by Éditions de la Martinière.
Chronological list
References
External links
The Seminars of Jacques LacanNo Subject, an online encyclopedia of Lacanian psychoanalysis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacan, Jacques, Seminars Of
Books about the philosophy of sexuality
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 ...
Post-structuralism
Structuralism
Postmodern theory
Works by Jacques Lacan
Philosophy of psychology