The Psychoses, Part 4

Weekly Video Commentaries on Seminar III

The unconscious, repetition, transference, and the drive — these are the four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis. Or, at least, that’s what Lacan tells us in Seminar XI — which is exactly where we’re headed next!

Lectures begin in two weeks, with a pay-what-you-can structure throughout, and participants will have access to digital recordings of all lectures and diagrams. Let me know if you need a copy of the book, too, and I’ll gladly send one your way.

But we were talking about Seminar III, not Seminar XI. And yet, even in Seminar XI, the clinical structure of psychosis shows up — a powerful reminder that, if Freud taught the world about neurotics, Lacan never tired of talking about psychotics. Hence, Seminar XXIII, on “the sinthome,” which is every bit the bookend to Seminar III — and in some ways to Lacan’s career as well.

But we were talking about Seminar XI, not Seminar III — and certainly not Seminar XXIII! Notice how Lacan returns to the clinical structure of psychosis in this text, if only to whet your diagrammatic appetite for our upcoming sessions on this foundational seminar:

Okay, okay, I’ll stop. Back to Seminar III — for real this time.

Here are some video commentaries to help with book’s middle sections, notably chapters 7-20. Stay tuned for concluding remarks on The Psychoses next week!