Studying Lacan's Seminars IV and V

259 Pages·2018·3.586 MB·English

by  Carol Owens (editor)

“A stellar constellation of readers analyze two of Lacan’s major seminars here, one
on our relation to the object and the other on ‘unconscious formations’ like
dreams, daydreams, and fantasies. Fascinating work will be found here on phobia,
fetishism, and perversion more generally, as well as on witticisms, lack, metaphor,
the phallus, castration, and clinical practice with children and adults.”
Bruce Fink, Lacanian psychoanalyst, author of several books on Freud and
Lacan, translator into English of Lacan’s Ecrits and Seminars VI: Desire and Its Inter-
pretation, VIII: Transference, and XX: Encore
“At last, a scholarly examination of Lacan’s Seminars IV and V by practitioners
who know how to read Lacan and show us the intimate link between conceptual
developments and clinical work. This book couples two seminars, enabling us to
trace the to and fro in Lacan’s Seminar between subject and signifier, and here
from lack to desire.”
Ian Parker, Psychoanalyst, Secretary of Manchester Psychoanalytic Matrix.
“Studying Lacan’s Seminars IV and V represents a fundamental breakthrough in the
understandingofJacquesLacan’sthought.Throughaseriesoffecundessaysunpacking
the intricacies of two of the more difficult early seminars, this volume sheds light on
keyproblemslikephobia,thephallus,andlack.Anyonewhowantstoknowanything
about the psychoanalytic project must view the collection that Carol Owens and
NadezhdaAlmquisthaveputtogetherasutterlyessential.”
Professor Todd McGowan, University of Vermont
“As if live-streaming the seminars, this excellent collection highlights Lacan’s con-
temporary relevance by putting it into action. Punctuated with clinical material, the
book moves with ease between theory and practice, astutely deploying controversial
psychoanalyticnotionssuchaslack,desire,andthephallus.Drawingusefuldistinctions
between phobias, fetishism, and perversion, the authors explain the clinical use of
dreamsandjokes.Theseforcefulessays,allwrittenwithverveandclarity,setamodel
forthetransmissionofpsychoanalysiswhileprovidinganindispensablecompanionto
Lacan’sseminarsIVandV.”
Patricia Gherovici, psychoanalyst and author, Transgender Psychoanalysis: A
Lacanian Perspective on Sexual Difference (Routledge, 2017)
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STUDYING LACAN'S SEMINARS IV
AND V
This is the first collection of essays to offer a comprehensive analysis of, and
reflection on, the major themes emergent in Jacques Lacan’s seminars of 1955–56
and 1956–57: Seminar IV– the object relation,and Seminar V – formationsof the
unconscious.
Assessing the value of a clinical approach orientated around the question of the
object lack in the contemporary clinic, the book comprises 16 chapters which
follow the development of a range of concepts elaborated by Lacan in these semi-
nars, including sustained engagement with his critique of object relations theory. It
considers the effectiveness of these early ideas in clinical practice in relation to
hysteria, phobia, fetishism, obsessional neurosis, and of the so-called “Borderline”
case. Lacan’s early concepts are also subjected to critique for engagement with
Queer theory, and research on asexuality or the operation(s) of the signifier
Phallus.
The chapters build to provide an invaluable resource to interpret and evaluate
Lacan’s early teaching, and to find in his early concepts a fresh utility and scope for
both clinical work and psychoanalytic research and enquiry. The book will be of
great interest to Lacanian scholars and students, as well as psychoanalytic therapists,
and analysts interested in Lacan’s early work.
Carol Owens and Nadezhda Almqvist are psychoanalytic practitioners in
Dublin. They are the founders of the Dublin Lacan study group.
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STUDYING LACAN'S
SEMINARS IV AND V
From Lack to Desire
Edited by Carol Owens and Nadezhda Almqvist
Firstpublished2019
byRoutledge
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CONTENTS
List of figures xii
Acknowledgements xiii
About the editors xvi
Notes on contributors xvii
Preface xxi
Introduction xxv
Carol Owens and Nadezhda Almqvist
PART1
Phobia/Fetish 1
1 Drawing the urinary trait: Fantasy and analytic technique in
Ruth Lebovici’s treatment of a transitory perversion 3
Dany Nobus
2 The lessons of little Hans 15
Leonardo S. Rodríguez
3 “Once bitten, forever smitten”: Phobias, fetishes, and small boys 27
Carol Owens
4 The phobic and fetish objects 38
Stephanie Swales