To sustain a clinical practice, analysts and psychotherapists rely on a theoretical framework that defines their assumptions about human nature. Such theory informs the logic that guides their interventions and therefore impacts the results of such treatment. From a Lacanian perspective, human subjectivity is understood through three registers: the Symbolic, the Real and the Imaginary. Roughly speaking, within the Symbolic realm we locate language, culture, discourse and desire. The register of the Real brings about…

The practice of psychotherapy calls for a necessary and ongoing reflection on the means, aims and conduction of the therapeutic process. The manner in which therapists approach their act involves an ethical responsibility and depends on the theoretical assumptions they hold as valid, useful and truthful. This Seminar offers an introductory frame that addresses psychodynamic as well as ethical and practical issues in the conduction of a psychotherapeutic act. We will…