Ray O’Neill on Dali, Lacan, Freud, Narcissism & the Double
Irish Lacanian psychoanalyst Ray O’Neill discusses the life and work of Salvador Dali from a psychoanalytic viewpoint, addressing narcissism, the theory of the double & posing the question what’s really in a name? This talk was first presented at the Psychoanalysis, Art & the Occult conference in London, and is titled “Double Double, Toil and Trouble, Psychoanalysis Burn and Surrealism Bubble”. For more from Dr. O’Neill visit: www.machna.ie www.renderingunconscious.org
Hilda & Freud: Collected Words
“The flowers and the words bear this in common, they are what I want. And the professor knew it.” H.D. Hilda & Freud: Collected Words is a play by Antonio Quinet based on H.D.’s Tribute to Freud, the letters she exchanged with Freud and her literary circle, her memoir of her psychoanalysis, and her poetry. Hilda Doolittle a.k.a H.D., a forty-seven-year-old American poet born in Philadelphia met Freud, then in his late seventies, in Vienna. This was in 1933, and it was the beginning of a transference “love affair” that included exchanges of gifts, letters, and flowers. Freud’s psychoanalytic treatment of Hilda during the advent of Nazism was not conventional in any sense. “The professor himself is uncanonical enough,” H.D. noted. Hilda reenacts moments of her life and analysis, which sh...Read More
Jamieson Webster at Night of Philosophy: Anxiety Anxiety Anxiety!
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Ricardo Goldenberg: Jouissance Again!
Summary by Evan Malater: No mere bomb cyclone could keep the Unbehagen from coming out in force for today’s day long Jouissance event featuring Brazilian analyst Ricardo Goldenberg. A fine day was had by all though Jouissance as such was had by none. By this I don’t mean to insult Ricardo but on the contrary to pay careful attention to one of his key points – jouissance is not something that I have or that you have. I cannot speak of my jouissance or how you experience your jouissance, according to Ricardo. Why is this? Because jouissance is always jouissance of the Other. Ricardo began by speaking of the sort of reading – or misreading – that he practices. In his thinking, misreading is not a pejorative term. He follows Harold Bloom in his writing on misprisi...Read More
Mari Ruti: “The Disenchanted: Queer Theory between Negativity and Flourishing”
Summary by Evan Malater: Congratulations to Jill Gentile and the Ferenczi Center for their rousing event with Mari Ruti on Queer Theory and Penis Envy! By all indications it was a success. Not only was the hall completely packed but the level of engagement by the audience was impressive. Ruti’s audience seemed composed of many psychoanalysts but also those well versed in critical theory, affect theory and queer theory, not to mention Lacanian and relational theory. Ruti began with a talk called “The Disenchanted: Queer Negativity and Flourishing.” Here she took aim at what she sees as the tiresome trend in queer theory to valorize abjection, failure and the pulverization of the subject. Ruti is herself a longtime reader of Lacan, Derrida, Deleuze and all the usual suspects but nevert...Read More
Marc Strauss: The Usual Sexpects
Summary by Evan Malater: Jamieson started with a message of discontent aimed at the discontents from part one of the Marc Strauss miniseries following Kelly Merklin’s admirable presentation. To those who seemed disturbed by the idea that Kelly’s patient was a (Lacanian) psychotic, she offered that even if we think this is suspect, we should appreciate such a clear and exemplary formulation. If we want to contest this formulation of psychosis, we would have to contest it on its own terms and show how its logic falters and how a logic of continuity could justify itself against the Lacanian model. In the same vein, Marc Strauss began by directly addressing the objection that Lacan does not allow any continuum from psychosis to neurosis. Nevertheless, he tipped his hat to a Lacania...Read More