The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis

Haider Ali, Thurs. 4.00-6.00pm
syed.h.ali@mail.mcgill.ca

Jacques Lacan is, in many ways, the most significant figure in psychoanalysis after Sigmund Freud himself, supplementing the discipline with structural linguistics, while also drawing upon various philosophical currents, like phenomenology. Lacan’s influence can be traced in much of French post-war anti-humanist thought, for instance in the work of Louis Althusser. Indeed, the students of Lacan and Althusser (Badiou, Duroux, Miller, to name some) would go on to produce novel theoretical interventions, such as in the Cahiers pour l’Analyse. Despite his significance, Lacan is famously difficult to work with, due to his abstruse style and technical terminology. This seminar offers an introduction to Lacan’s thought, by reading Lacan’s first seminar delivered to a non-specialised audience: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. In this seminar, Lacan, for the first time, presents a more cohesive view of his psychoanalytic system, tracing ‘four’ fundamental concepts, as the title implies: the unconscious, repetition, transference, and the drive.

Weekly sessions, which include a framing lecture followed by discussion, will follow Lacan’s fundamentals, with a mind to clarifying Lacan’s theory of the ‘subject’. We will begin with some contextual material selected from Freud and from Lacan’s Écrits, before devoting the remainder of the seminar to The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. No prior experience with the subject matter is necessary or expected.

We will be relying on the most widely available edition of Lacan’s seminar, translated by Alan Sheridan and first published by Norton in 1998.

Schedule

5 September 2024

Sigmund Freud, “A Difficulty in the Path of Psycho-analysis” (SE 17, pp. 137-44)
Jacques Lacan, “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience” (Écrits, pp. 75-84)
Jacques Lacan, “The Function and Field of Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis” (Écrits, pp. 201-20, 228-29, 265)

12 September 2024
Sigmund Freud, “Negation” (The Freud Reader, pp. 666-69)
Jean Hyppolite, “A Spoken Commentary on Freud’s ‘Verneinung’ by Jean Hyppolite” (Écrits, pp. 746-54)
Jacques Lacan, “Response to Jean Hyppolite’s Commentary on Freud’s ‘Verneinung’” (Écrits, pp. 318-33)

19 September 2024

Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, pp. vii-ix, 1-28 

26 September 2024

Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, pp. 29-52

3 October 2024

Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, pp. 53-78

10 October 2024

Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, pp. 79-104

17 October 2024 (no seminar, reading week)

24 October 2024

Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, pp. 105-135

31 October 2024

Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, pp. 136-160

7 November 2024

Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, pp. 161-186

14 November 2024

Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, pp. 187-215 

21 November 2024

Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, pp. 216-243

28 November 2024

Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, pp. 244-276

5 December 2024

Jacques Lacan, “The Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire in the Freudian Unconscious” (Écrits pp. 671-702)