L'Étourdit, Encore

Our summer series on Lacan’s notorious 1972 essay, L’Étourdit, is now complete. What a bizarre, brain-torquing, sometimes impossible, and wildly fruitful read. 💎

Among the clinical and conceptual breakthroughs that still have me thinking are Lacan’s emphasis on sense over signification, his related prioritization of speech events (acts of saying) over their lexical content (what is said), and, undergirding it all, his wonderfully fine distinction of the real from truth and, by extension, symptom and unconscious alike.

“I will metaphorise for the moment as incestuous the relationship that truth entertains with the real,” Lacan tells us in the opening pages of L’Étourdit, in a passage we recalled throughout our summer series. “Speaking comes from where it [the real] commands the truth.”

All of which allowed for some radical new diagram work, especially in terms of the analytic discourse. So much so that I dare say it’s this discourse, with all the sensifications that L’Étourdit invites us to add, that points us to the hot molten core of Lacan’s thought in this period:

Does this mean I think you should read L’Étourdit? Maybe. If you reach the end of our series on Seminar XIXb . . . Or Worse and find yourself hungry for more, then yes, by all means, L’Étourdit is for you. And if you need some help along the way, I even know of a lecture series whose recordings you can consult:

But don’t take my word for it! There are now 31 recent readers of L’Étourdit whom you can also consult. Andrew, Angelo, Carina, Chaim, Chiara, Chloe, Cody, David, Derek, Dieter, Edie, Fernanda, Gabriel, Geo, Gwen, Hamza, Henrik, Holly, Jonathan, Kolya, Marcio, Micheli, Mina, Patrick, Penny, Rachel, Richard, Risa, Robert, Sandy, and Tiffi — you all have accomplished what many of the world’s Lacanians have yet to even attempt!

Now, for a bit of a break. 😓 If only to begin planning the next encore, which is every bit the encore you expect — and one I can’t wait to undertake with you: Seminar XX. Stay tuned for more news in the coming weeks — and be sure to spread the word in the meantime.💥