11 November 2021
A Practice of the Letter
By

A Practice of the Letter

September 2021 to November 2024

ICLO-NLS Annual Teaching Seminar 2021/24

PSYCHOANALYSIS: A PRACTICE OF THE LETTER

In 1965 Lacan writes that “the practice of the letter converges with the usage of the unconscious.”[1] It is, as far as I know, the only time that Lacan uses this expression.

However, the question of the letter, of writing and reading, is present in Lacan’s work from very early on[2] and at the core of his encounter with psychoanalysis and his “return to Freud”.

This seminar will consist of an exploration, over three years, of Lacan’s major works[3] on these issues in their articulation with clinical practice and the specificity of the analytic experience according to the Lacanian Orientation.

Conducted by Florencia F.C. Shanahan

NOTES

  1. Lacan, J., Autres Ecrits, Seuil, p. 191.
  2. Cf. “Inspired Writings. Schizography”, presented to the Medico-Psychological Society on November 12th, 1931, published in “Jacques Lacan, Travaux et interventions” AREP edition, Alençon, 1977.
  3. “Function and Field…”, “The Purloined Letter”, “The Instance of the Letter…”, “Lituraterre”