Instructor: Simone Medina Polo
Description:
This course is focused on introducing psychoanalysis by way of the work of Jacques Lacan and Lacanian psychoanalysis. The seminar will touch on four main aspects of psychoanalysis: 1) theory and practice, 2) desire and the drive, 3) sex and love, and 4) the sinthome and subjective destitution. The lectures will cover the key points of all the readings assigned, while the readings supplement the summary lectures by offering the student a more comprehensive engagement with these topics.
Prerequisites: Enrollment in GCAS College Dublin e-school. If taking this for credit you must first qualify by holding a BA degree. Please write to contact@gcas.ie if you want to take this for credit.
Required Texts:
Bruce Fink, A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis
Jacques Lacan, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan Book XI: The Four Fundamental
Concepts of Psychoanalysis
Jacques Lacan, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan Book XX: On Feminine Sexuality
Jacques Lacan, Écrits
Alain Badiou and Nicholas Truong, In Praise of Love
Alenka Zupančič, Why Psychoanalysis? Three Interventions
Alenka Zupančič, “Philosophy or Psychoanalysis? Yes, Please!”
Genevieve Morel, “Psychoanalytic Anatomy” and “The Sexual Sinthome”
Patricia Gherovici, Transgender Psychoanalysis
Assessments: (for those taking this course for credit)
The student will be assessed in all aspects of this course through the following means:
1. Minor Reflections I and II — 400-1000 words
2. Major Essay — 1500-3000 words
3. Presentation — up to 10 minutes.
Schedule:
Session 1: Psychoanalytic Theory and Clinical Practice
Readings:
Fink, A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis
- “Desire and Psychoanalytic Technique”
- “Engaging the Patient in the Therapeutic Process”
Zupančič, “Philosophy or Psychoanalysis? Yes, Please!”
Zupančič, Why Psychoanalysis?
- Introduction
Lacan, Écrits
- “Psychoanalysis and Its Teaching”
- “The Situation of Psychoanalysis and the Training of Psychoanalysts in 1956”
Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis
- Excommunication
Session 2: Desire and the Drive
Readings:
Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis
- “Deconstruction of the Drive”
- “In You More Than You”
Zupančič, Why Psychoanalysis?
- Intervention I
Fink, A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis
- “Interpretation: Opening up the Space of Desire”
- “The Dialectic of Desire”
- “From Desire to Jouissance”
Learning and Teaching Methods:
Online lectures consisting of lectures, discussions, reflections, essays, and student presentation.
Online via GCAS’ Zoom platform
Session 3: Sex and Love
Readings:
Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis
- “Presence of the Analyst”
- “Sexual in the Defiles of the Signifier”
Gherovici, Transgender Psychoanalysis
- “Bring Sex Back”
Lacan, Seminar XX
- “Love and the Signifier”
- “The Rat in the Maze”
Badiou, In Praise of Love
- “Love Under Threat”
- “Philosophers and Love”
- “The Truth of Love”
Morel, “Psychoanalytic Anatomy”
Session 4: The Sinthome and Subjective Destitution, or Making Life Livable
Lacan, Seminar XX
- “A Love Letter”
Morel, “Psychoanalytic Anatomy”
Morel, “The Sexual Sinthome”
Gherovici, Transgender Psychoanalysis
- “Plastic Sex, The Beauty of It”
- “Clinic of the Clinamen”
- “Making Life Livable”
Intended Learning Outcomes:
- Ability to understand the major ideas of Lacanian psychoanalysis
- Ability to engage psychoanalytic texts and conversation critically and coherently
- Ability to communicate clearly and analytically about all the major subjects that
comprise this course
- Ability to understand the socio-political consequences of psychoanalysis today