A review of Lacan's seminar on anxiety1

The seminar on anxiety marks a turning point in the development of Lacan's thought from several perspectives. First, Lacan implicitly abandons his theory that the unconscious is structured like a language. He also abandons the endeavour to identify Freud's theory with his own. He develops some original new ideas about anxiety, some of which are of great interest, such as the connection between castration anxiety and narcissism; others, such as his denial of the existence of separation anxiety, are absurd. Lacan's main point of divergence from Freud, his rejection of the inner world, also emerges clearly in this seminar.     

Perinatal Loss and Its Vicissitudes

Perinatal loss remains a persistent tragedy among the many risks pregnant and birthing mothers must face. Despite the prevalence of stillbirths and postnatal deaths, however, there is little discussion of the unique therapeutic demands that such losses bring to treatment. This article explores the many challenges faced by grieving parents for whom the experience of life and death has been so painfully fused. Part of what distinguishes a perinatal loss from other forms of loss is the conflicting need to “hold on” and “let go” at the same time, a conflict that brings with it unique challenges that have to be acknowledged and worked with if treatment is to progress. I examine the case of a young professional couple in their struggle to accept the reality of their daughter’s death. I suggest that an important component of treatment is the development of a “psychic life” for the lost infant in the minds of the parents so that that s/he can be mourned, remembered, and recalled. Both parents exhibited a temporal disorientation as their future was taken from them and they instead find themselves haunted by ghosts from their past. We worked to articulate an affective and conceptual framework in which their loss could be integrated into a new vision of their future.     

Vicissitudes of Student Group Psychotherapists

Abstract

This article describes the main processes and themes in consciousness-raising gender conflict groups for undergraduate students who study in parallel a course on gender and psychology. The main theme of the course is that gender is a classification system that influences individuals, interactions between individuals, and social institutions. The aim of the groups is to provide students with a safe environment to discuss their thoughts and feelings following the encounter of these ideas. Group leading is based on a combination of principles derived from consciousness-raising groups from the 1970s and a model for working with groups in conflict.     

拉康精神病理论的历史性溯源研究

在精神分析理论对精神病的研究中,法国精神分析家拉康通过精神病临床的实践与思考,突破与拓展弗洛伊德后期提出的精神病理论。他的整个精神病理论研究分为四个阶段,从最初强调想象界发现精神病主体的形成机制到全盛时期强调象征界提出精神病发病机制,然后转到在实在界谈论精神病的稳定性,最终在三界中通过“圣状”纽结精神病的人格结构。拉康的精神病理论促使大众从精神分析角度去理解精神病的临床精神结构,充分体现了精神分析理论的独特性和创新性,拓展了精神分析的治疗范围,也影响了其后继者提出常精神病的概念。

     

Lacan's Theory of Self and the Story of the Last Cookie

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Desire Satisfactionism and Hedonism

Hedonism and the desire-satisfaction theory of welfare (“desire satisfactionism”) are typically seen as archrivals in the contest over identifying what makes one’s life go best. It is surprising, then, that the most plausible form of hedonism just is the most plausible form of desire satisfactionism. How can a single theory of welfare be a version of both hedonism and desire satisfactionism? The answer lies in what pleasure is: pleasure is, in my view, the subjective satisfaction of desire. This thesis about pleasure is clarified and defended only after we proceed through the dialectics that get us to the most plausible forms of hedonism and desire satisfactionism.     

在欲望与秩序之间--学术转型期围绕戴震解放人欲思想的话语剖析

一、绪论 张灏先生曾经以“普世王权”的崩溃所带来的“基本宇宙观念”动摇来描述清末民初学术转型期之思想动荡状况。张氏称当时的“文化取向危机”促使知识分子为形成“新的思想论域”而寻找自己的话语系统。众所周知,在此过程中多数学者参照清代学术思想的转向而思考,戴震作为清代朴学之集大成者,尤其受到知识界注目。本文试图探讨戴震其人其思想在此转型时期,如何被叙述,侧重分析这一时期关于戴震解放人欲思想的主要知识话语,由此思考现代学术转型所包含的思想趋向以及所面临的困境。     

Theology of Desire

Abstract

A white-hair asks, as a man, when I meet a woman, what do I sense? This is answered as a single young man, a married father, a divorced man, and as an elder. From a pre-Sixties youth where sex was religiously defined in terms of marriage and women as mothers-to-be, through the Free Sex movement as a young adult, to experiences of prison sex as a religious radical, into married, divorced and finally elder sexuality, the search is to understand the play of sexuality and intimacy. "Slap the bitch!" prison sex makes clear the source functionality of the mythic Adam's Rib account in determining the currently dominant global view of sexuality and intimacy in the digital age. A vision of coupled presence is presented wherein ritual practices are referenced that enable men and women to embody the fullness of their sexuality and intimacy.     

Psychoanalysis and cultural change: Perspectives based on Lacan's rereading of Freud

Psychoanalysis cannot distance itself from culture and its transformations. It cannot ignore cultural ideals, which each individual uniquely appropriates to produce identifications, find his place within the human community, express his desires, and manifest the suffering occasioned by each difficult experience. This article will try to demonstrate this necessity of taking culture into account by drawing on Lacan's approach, which is based on the lessons of Freud. The author emphasizes the fact that every culture has its “discontents,” which stem from the incompleteness at the very heart of human experience, and that our cultural constructions are therefore constantly being reworked. By doing so, she aims to cast a different perspective on the relationship between the psyche and culture, and bring out the inherent complexity of the now fashionable notion of the “decline of the father,” which is systematically used to explain the new symptoms and ills of modern society. By detecting this decline, by searching for the visible signs of this deficit, do we not instead end up creating them ourselves?