Interrogating the Nature of Contemporary Social Bonds with the Psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan
A lecture and two seminars by Dr. Benjamin Mayer-Foulkes
(Psychoanalyst and Founding director of 17, Institute of Critical Studies, Mexico)
December 5, 2012 7-9 pm SFU Harbour Centre. Room 7000
Lecture: “Towards a Lacanian Analytic of Contemporary Social Bonds”
On the basis of a reappraisal of Jacques Lacan’s doctrine of the Four discourses, as developed in Seminar XVII, this lecture proposes to interrogate the nature of contemporary social bonds in the wake of the French analyst’s own later introduction of a fifth discourse, the Discourse of the Capitalist. Do the formalizations originally proposed by him in the wake of 1968 suffice to understand the political, religious, scientific, technological, artistic and therapeutic constellations faced by us today?
Suggested reading:
Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: The Other Side of Psychoanalysis, Seminar XVII: L’Envers de la Psychoanalyse (1969-70), trans. Russell Grigg (1991; New York: W.W. Norton, 2007).
Lacan, Jacques. “Du discours psychanalytique. Conférence à Milan” (1972-05-12):
Zizek, Slavoj. “Lacan’s Four Discourses”, in Lacanian Ink
December 6, 2012 7-9pm SFU Harbour Centre. Room 7000
Seminar: “Is Trafficking a Particular Sort of Social Bond?”
What might the various forms of trafficking (drugs-, arms-, human-, organ-, animal-, financial-, and so on) have in common? And to what extent might trafficking be considered in and of itself as a particular kind of social bond? This seminar will thematize the question in the context of a broader discussion of contemporary economic and political developments.
Suggested reading:
Dufour, Dany-Robert. “Liberalism, Liberation of Passions, Drives, Traffics”, in Política Común,#2
Mier, Raymundo. “Tráficos y democracia,” in Diecisiete #2.
Valderrama, Ricardo. “Pues nací, pues nací. Testimonio de Ricardo Valderrama ”, Interview by Nuria Araiza Fernández, written version by Noé Morales Muñoz, in Diecisiete #2
Braunstein, Néstor. El inconsciente, la técnica y el discurso capitalista. Siglo XXI, México, 2012.
December 7, 6-8pm SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
149 West Hastings Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema
Clinical Seminar: “Psychoanalysis Vs. Therapy: on Two Contrasting Discursivities”
On the basis of Lacan’s characterization of the Discourse of the Analyst, this seminar will contrast Psychoanalytic and Therapeutic practices. Three questions will be approached. Is the analyst a clinician? How does the analyst listen? Under what conditions might analytic practice take place beyond the analyst’s consulting room?
Suggested reading:
Le Gaufey, Guy. “Is the analyst a clinician?”, in: Journal of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research #17
Freud, Sigmund. “Recommendations to Physicians Practising Psycho-Analysis” (1912)
De Man, Paul. “The Return to Philology” and “The Resistance to Theory” in: The Resistance to Theory. University of Minnesota Press, 1986.
These events are co-sponsored by the Lacan Salon of Vancouver, Dept. of English at SFU, and The Institute for the Humanities SFU, with the support of the SFU Vancity Office of Community Engagement.
*Art Credit: JOSE ANTONIO VEGA MACOTELA, Intercambio 331 / Time Exchange 331, 2010, a collaborative project in which the artist spied on the ex-lover of an inmate, who in exchange made a board game (which is modeled on the prison layout) by arranging his and his current lover’s hair on paper. Courtesy of the artist.
