View source for Seminars of Jacques Lacan

{{Psychoanalysis}}
From 1952 to 1980 [[France|French]] [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalyst]] and [[psychiatrist]] [[Jacques Lacan]] gave an influential annual [[seminar]] in [[Paris]]. The ''Books'' of the Seminar are edited by [[Jacques-Alain Miller]].<ref>The complete set of annual seminars is referred to collectively in French as the ''Séminaire'', and the practice of capitalising the "S" of Seminar has been retained in English to denote the full series and thereby distinguish the Parisian series from other ad hoc seminars. Cf. Macey, D. "Introduction" to The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis.</ref>

== History ==
In 1951, Lacan, then a member of the [[Paris Psychoanalytic Society]], initiated a series of weekly Wednesday meetings in his apartment on Rue de Lille, Paris. In 1952, the meetings were transferred to the Hôpital Sainte-Anne where Lacan worked as a consultant psychiatrist. ''Book I'' of the seminar<ref>Lacan, Jacques. ''The Seminar Book I, Freud's Papers on Technique'', Cambridge University Press.</ref> is the edited transcription of the 1952-1953 weekly lessons at Sainte-Anne, where the Seminar would be held until 1963.

The final seminar to be held at Sainte-Anne is published as ''Book X'' (''L'angoisse'', 1962-1963). The single lesson delivered on 20 November 1963 and published as "Introduction to the Names-of-the-Father Seminar"<ref>Lacan, Jacques. "Introduction to the Names-of-the-Father Seminar". ''Television/A Challenge to the Psychoanalytic Establishment'', pp. 81-95</ref> is the introduction to a seminar that was never delivered, and which has thus been dubbed ''The Inexistent Seminar''.<ref>Miller, Jacques-Alain "The Inexistent Seminar". ''Psychoanalytical Notebooks of the London Society'', issue 15</ref> Indeed, the night before this lesson, Lacan had been informed that the SFP "had voted, in a complicated procedure, to refuse to ratify the motion striking Lacan's name from the list of the training analysts",<ref>Lacan, Jacques. ''Television/A Challenge to the Psychoanalytic Establishment'', p. 81.</ref> thus stripping Lacan of the right to continue as a training analyst within the [[International Psychoanalytical Association]]. This institutional manoeuvre effectively brought to a close the early period of Lacan's teaching.<!-- Note: text of quote above actually implies that Lacan was NOT stripped, because the motion to strip him was not ratified... -->

The middle period of Lacan's teaching began two months later with ''[[The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis]]''. Hosted by the [[École Normale Supérieure]], under the patronage of the [[School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences]], the Seminar now enjoyed "a much larger audience" and represented a "change of front".<ref>Lacan, Jacques. "Report on the 1964 Seminar". [[Hurly-Burly (Journal)|''Hurly-Burly'']] '''5''', p. 17.</ref> This series of lessons, now edited as ''Book XI'' of the Seminar, opens with the lesson "Excommunication" in which Lacan expands on the circumstances and implications of his exclusion from the IPA. The second lesson, "The Freudian Unconscious and Ours" sets the tone of his ensuing teaching by indicating potential points of discontinuity with respect to [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]]'s oeuvre.

Lacan's yearly Seminar continued at the École normale supérieure until 1969. From autumn 1969 onwards, it was hosted by the [[Pantheon-Sorbonne University|Law Faculty]] at [[Place du Panthéon]].<ref>Grigg, Russell. "Translator's Note" to The Seminar Book XVII, ''The Other Side of Psychoanalysis'', p. 9.</ref> This series of seminars, the late period of Lacan's teaching, opened with ''The Other Side of Psychoanalysis'', now edited as ''Book XVII'' of the Seminar, and continued until the late seventies.

As Lacan's teaching moved into the phase known as the ''very late teaching of Lacan'', his declining health led to less regular appointments. Lacan's final public delivery on 12 July 1980, sometimes referred to as "The Caracas Seminar"<ref>Lacan, Jacques. "Overture to the First International Encounter of the Freudian Field". ''Hurly-Burly'' '''6''' 17-20.</ref> was not, as this title indicates, part of the Parisian series.

== Transcription ==
From the very first seminar at Sainte-Anne, the weekly sessions were recorded by a [[shorthand]] typist. For two decades, copies of these typescripts were the only available record of Lacan's oral teaching, Lacan himself having declined the various offers extended to him to have the typescripts edited into publishable volumes.<ref>Miller, Jacques-Alain, ''Entretien sur "Le séminaire" avec François Ansermet'', Navarin, 1985.</ref>

In the early seventies, Jacques-Alain Miller offered some indications as to what would constitute an effective editorial strategy and at Lacan's invitation drew up a transcription of the twenty lessons that made up the eleventh seminar, ''The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis'' delivered in 1964. The result pleased Lacan, and [[François Wahl]] at Éditions du Seuil was happy to publish.

Seminar XI was published in 1973. In his "Postface", Lacan writes: "A transcription, now here is a word I am discovering thanks to the modesty of J. A. M., Jacques-Alain Miller by name: what gets read passes through the writing whilst surviving there intact".<ref>Lacan, Jacques "Postface to Seminar XI" ''Hurly-Burly'' '''7''' (2012) p. 17.</ref> Lacan had said to Miller, "we will sign it together", but Miller had preferred to opt for a more discreet "Text established by…", a nod to the editing credits to the Greek and Latin texts in the [[Collection Budé]].<ref>Miller, Jacques-Alain, ''Vie de Lacan'', (2011).</ref>

Both Lacan and Wahl were keen for more seminars to be published and Lacan entrusted the task to Miller<ref>Miller, Jacques-Alain "Le démon de Lacan". ''Le diable probablement'' '''9''' p. 130</ref>. Four more books of the Seminar were published during Lacan's lifetime. The first to be translated into English was ''Book XI'', published by [[Hogarth Press]] in 1977 with a specially written preface. To date, fourteen of the seminars have been published in French, seven of which have also in English translation. The remaining seminars have all been established by Miller and are currently awaiting publication.

== Chronological list ==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|  width="50px" | Book 
|  width="50px" | Years
|  | Title 
|-
|  | I
| 1953-54
|| Book I: ''Les écrits techniques de Freud'' (Seuil, 1975)<BR>Translated by [[John Forrester (historian)|J. Forrester]] as ''Freud's Technical Papers'' (Cambridge UP/Norton, 1988)
|-
|  | II
| 1954-55
|| Book II: ''[[The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis|Le moi dans la théorie de Freud et dans la technique de la psychanalyse]]'' (Seuil, 1978)<BR>Translated by [[Sylvana Windsor, Countess of St Andrews|S. Tomaselli]] as ''The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis'' (Cambridge UP/Norton, 1988)
|-
|  | III
| 1955-56
|| Book III: ''Les psychoses'' (Seuil, 1981)<BR>Translated by R. Grigg as ''The Psychoses'' (Routledge/Norton, 1993)
|-
|  | IV
| 1956-57
|| Book IV: ''La relation d'objet et les structures freudiennes'' (Seuil, 1994)
|-
|  | V
| 1957-58
|| Book V: ''Les formations de l'inconscient'' (Seuil, 1998)
|-
|  | VI
| 1958-59
|| Book VI: ''Le désir et son interprétation''
<BR>Lessons published in ''Ornicar ?'' 24-25 and
translated by James Hulbert in ''[[Yale French Studies]]'' '''55/56''', 11-22.
|-
|  | VII
| 1959-60
|| Book VII: ''L'éthique de la psychanalyse'' (Seuil, 1986)<BR>Translated by D. Porter as ''The Ethics of Psychoanalysis'' (Routledge/Norton, 1992)
|-
|  | VIII
| 1960-61
|| Book VIII: ''Le transfert'' (2nd edition Seuil, 2001)
|-
|  | IX
| 1961-62
|| Book IX: ''L'identification''
|-
|  | X
| 1962-63
|| Book X: ''L'angoisse'' (Seuil, 2004)
|-
|  | -
| 1963
|| The "Inexistent" Seminar. Introduction published as ''Les Noms du père'' (Seuil, 2005)<BR>Translated by [[Jeffrey Mehlman|J. Mehlman]] as "Introduction to 'The Names of the Father' Seminar", in ''[[Television/A Challenge to the Psychoanalytic Establishment]]'', 1990
|-
|  | XI
| 1964
|| Book XI: ''Les quatre concepts fondamentaux de la psychanalyse'' (Seuil, 1973)<BR>Translated by [[Alan Sheridan|A. Sheridan]] as ''[[The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis]]'' (Hogarth, 1977)
|-
|  | XII
| 1964-65
|| Book XII: ''Problèmes cruciaux pour la psychanalyse''
|-
|  | XIII
| 1965-6
|| Book XIII: ''L'objet de la psychanalyse''
|-
|  | XIV
| 1966-67
|| Book XIV: ''La logique du fantasme''
|-
|  | XV
| 1967-68
|| Book XV: ''L'acte psychanalytique''
|-
|  | XVI
| 1968-69
|| Book XVI: ''D'un Autre à l'autre'' (Seuil, 2006)
|-
|  | XVII
| 1969-70
|| Book XVII: ''L'envers de la psychanalyse'' (Seuil, 1991)<BR>Translated by R. Grigg as ''The Other Side of Psychoanalysis'' (Norton, 2007)
|-
|  | XVIII
| 1971
|| Book XVIII: ''D'un discours qui ne serait pas du semblant'' (Seuil, 2006)
|-
|  | XIX
| 1971-72
|| Book XIX: ''...ou pire'' (Seuil, 2011)<BR>Three lessons at Sainte-Anne published as ''Je parle aux murs'' (Seuil, 2011)
|-
|  | XX
| 1972-73
|| Book XX: ''Encore'', (Seuil, 1975) <BR>Translated by B. Fink as ''Encore, On Feminine Sexuality: The Limits of Love and Knowledge'' (Norton, 1998)
|-
|  | XXI
| 1973-74
|| Book XXI: ''Les non-dupes errent''
|-
|  | XXII
| 1974-75
|| Book XXII ''RSI''<BR>Lessons published in ''Ornicar ?'' 2-5
|-
|  | XXIII
| 1975-76
|| Book XXIII ''Le sinthome'' (Seuil, 2005)
|-
|  | XXIV
| 1976-77
|| Book XXIV: ''L'insu que sait de l'une-bévue s'aile à mourre''
<BR>Lessons published in ''Ornicar ?'' 12-18
|-
|  | XXV
| 1977-78
|| ''Le moment de conclure''
|-
|  | XXVI
| 1978-79
|| ''La topologie et le temps''
|-
|  | XXVII     
| 1980
|| ''Dissolution''<BR>Lessons published in ''Ornicar ?'' 20-23
|}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.lacan.com/seminars1a.htm The Seminars of Jacques Lacan]
* [http://nosubject.com No Subject, an online encyclopedia of Lacanian psychoanalysis]
* [http://www.lacan.com/lacan1.htm Lacan Dot Com]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacan, Jacques, Seminars Of}}
[[Category:Psychoanalytic studies]]
[[Category:Post-structuralism]]
[[Category:Structuralism]]
[[Category:Philosophy of sexuality]]
[[Category:Postmodern theory]]
[[Category:Works by Jacques Lacan]]

[[fr:Séminaires de Jacques Lacan]]
[[ru:Лакановские семинары]]