by Derek Hook | Vol 43 (1/2) 2025
Abstract: How might we read and apply Lacan’s under-utilized schema (or ‘graphicization’) from the eight session of Seminar XX? This paper draws on a series of reference-points in Freud’s work as a means of explaining both the three (R – I, I – S, and S – R) vectors in the schema and the three psychical objects (F, S(Ⱥ) and object a) that are produced at the midpoint of these vectors. Each such vector can be said to correspond to a particular type of challenge that occurs within the clinical work, such that what might be required is: 1) the Imaginarization of the Real, 2) the Symbolic reduction (or ‘signifierization’) of the Imaginary, and 3) the ‘Real-ization’ of the Symbolic (or, a missed encounter with the Real).
by Dewi Dynoodt | Vol 43 (1/2) 2025
Abstract: This paper explores the concept of the gaze as object a, as elaborated by Lacan in his 11th seminar, with a particular emphasis on the split between the eye and the gaze. It also examines the functions of the stain, trompe l’oeil, and dompte-regard within this framework. These theoretical constructs will then be applied to a case study of a 60-year- old man who suffers from panic attacks triggered by the gaze. By implementing the concepts of the stain and dompte-regard, the paper illustrates how Lacanian theory can be used in clinical practice and how it can guide therapeutic interventions.
by Christian Fierens | Vol 41 (2) 2023
Summary: The first interpretation of Lacan’s ‘not all’ seems obvious: it would be the promotion of particular sentences (it remains in the hysterical discourse). Behind the formulae of sexuation, two true interpretations usually remain hidden: firstly the signifier of the barred big Other referring to a radical and universal not-knowing, secondly the consequences of it on the feminine movement and the masculine one and with the absence of any relation between them (these are two steps in the psychoanalytical discourse).
by Erik Mertens | Vol 39 (1) 2021
Samenvatting: We bespreken in dit artikel twee films van Lars von Trier die ons iets leren over de melancholische depressie. De film Antichrist illustreert hoe we een psychose vooral niet mogen benaderen als we een gewelddadige passage à l’acte willen vermijden. Door te focussen op het therapeutische proces in deze film verhelderen we de logica van de passage à l’acte, die tracht het kakon of het ‘kwade object’ in de ander te treffen. In de film Melancholia zien we hoe krachtig een melancholicus zich kan aangezogen voelen door een vol object zonder tekort, zoals een planeet. Deze film leert ons hoezeer de neurotische depressie van de psychotische depressie verschilt, met name in de verhouding tot het reële object, tot das Ding en tot een echte ramp.
by Dany Nobus | Vol 36 (4) 2018
This essay is intended as a scholarly contribution to the construction of a detailed biography of Lacan’s 1966 Écrits, which is conceived here as a living entity whose influence continues to radiate around the world, within as well as outside psychoanalytic circles. Documenting and re-evaluating the historical circumstances presiding over the book’s gestation, birth and coming of age, the essay first argues that, despite the multiplicity inscribed in its title, Lacan’s volume constitutes an integrated unity rather than a mere collection of disparate papers written over a period of thirty-odd years, albeit a unity that is fundamentally incomplete. Subsequent to this, it is proposed that Lacan’s choice of title (Écrits, writings) occasioned the crystallisation of his own theory of the letter, writing and (knowledge) transmission. Even though this theory was already contained in statu nascendi in two of the papers collected in Écrits, it was only through a process of deferred action that Lacan came to appreciate its significance. Aligning writing with the object a, as cause of desire, Lacan’s theory both underpinned his opposition to Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction of logocentrism (and his concurrent promotion of writing as a primordial trace), and informed his own protracted consideration of the transmission of psychoanalytic knowledge during the 1970s via a series of (mathematical and topological) writings.
