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Jacques Lacan devoted one of the sessions of his important Seminar XVII, The Other Side of Psychoanalysis, to Ludwig Wittgenstein's classic work Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Despite Lacan's and Wittgenstein's huge influence across academic disciplines (and the analytic–continental divide in philosophy), there has been no scholarly attempt to examine Lacan's claims concerning Wittgenstein in this seminar. This paper sets out to redress this gap in the literature. Specifically, we look at the context of the engagement; Lacan's reconstruction of Wittgenstein's arguments; their differing conceptions of truth, knowledge and the subject; and the issue of Wittgenstein's seemingly "psychotic" position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces and evaluates the Lacanian idea that racism can be conceptualized both as a mode of enjoyment (jouissance) and as a reaction to the perceived “theft of enjoyment.” Despite the distinct analytical advantages of this conceptualization—which grapples with racism not merely as discourse or socio-historical construction but in its affective, embodied, sensuous, and fantasmatic dimensions—the “theft of enjoyment” hypothesis can nonetheless be critiqued as: (1) guilty of a depoliticizing psychological reductionism; (2) conceptually under-differentiated and overly inclusive in its field of reference; (3) inattentive to different modes of enjoyment; and (4) conceptually decontextualized, cut off from the associated psychoanalytic concepts that necessarily accompany its proper application. Responding to these critiques, and by way of a defence of the analytic value of this hypothesis, this paper argues that: (1) jouissance is more a sociological than a psychological concept; (2) the notion of enjoyment must remain empty of definitive contents if it is to serve as an anti-essentialist variable of analysis; (3) three inter-connected modes of jouissance should be distinguished (bodily excitation, libidinal treasure, and the surplus vitality of the other); and (4) a series of psychoanalytic notions (drive, fantasy, object petit a, superego) should necessarily accompany any rigorous analytical application of the notion of jouissance to the social field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the unique aspects of video games as a medium to explore how games might be interpreted in an analytic setting. By emphasizing the role of enjoyment in playing games, this paper reassesses earlier approaches to games in analysis and proposes a more comprehensive framework for considering the analysand's interaction with games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2014 saw a surge in discussions in the media and in feminist circles around who is a feminist and what it takes to be one: critics proclaimed that pop singer Beyoncé is not a feminist; Katy Perry and Lady Gaga reject the label; and Roxane Gay published a collection of essays, Bad Feminist (2014), on the topic. This paper works from and against the claim that third-wave feminism is rife with 'undutiful daughters' and reads many of today's feminists as 'bad psychoanalysts' whose investment in reading desire often leads to a misreading. In positioning American pop sensation Lana Del Rey vis-à-vis Sophocles' Antigone, I argue that these undutiful daughters ask us to interrogate what it means to make one's desire ambiguously legible, and how that might work with, from, or against third-wave feminism. This paper contends that Del Rey and Antigone's childlike attitudes, and their decision to remain undutiful daughters, offer a new model of willfulness that is integral to feminism today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a brief, psychoanalytically informed exploration of youth development, with a focus on the often-negative psychosocial impact of neoliberal ideologies on low-income Black youth. Neoliberal policies have influenced the psychological development of low-income Black youths, who are embedded in psychosocial contexts that are often under-resourced and negatively racialized. This substantially constrains their attempts to love and work. There is often a paucity of safe places, identity capital and caring tutors of the imagination that might facilitate good outcomes for these young people. As a consequence of being embedded in such emotionally austere and unsafe places, they often adopt postures that lead to their under-development and, too often, their early demise. The paper also discusses some strategies of resistance to neoliberal ideology and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a psycho-social understanding of difficult and disabling life transitions, particularly in relation to old age. The paper brings together a biographical case study and theoretical analysis that draws on three sources: the work of Deleuze and Bergson in continental philosophy, Winnicott in psychoanalysis, and Turner in anthropology. By linking experience, theory and practice, I show how different, but related concepts, at different levels, may shed light on some puzzling behaviour common in old age. More broadly, I point to the value of such theoretical work for understanding and managing traumatic affect and life transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on data collected from my recent exploration of how teachers become competent in the area of relationships. In an interview, a student teacher, Kristin, voiced the challenges she faced: ‘I think it is easy enough to get the knowledge the student needs. The problem is, in a way, when people are involved’. This paper presents an encounter between Kristin and a student after Kristin had started to work as a teacher. It shows the difficulty of being professional when ‘people are involved’, that is, when emotions are at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studies Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke's most recent film, Caché (2005), as a narrative exploration of cultural tension, anxiety, and social psychology in the post-9/11 world. The paper focuses specifically on this psychological text/context and argues that, in the film, Haneke develops a critique of Western middle-class liberal subject positions through an examination of the crisis that emerges due to the intrusion of the Other and the Other's gaze. In studying the negotiations of a Parisian family with this sudden intrusion of the Other's gaze, I have relied on Lacan's theory of suture as constructing an imaginary defense against the Real of colonial guilt.Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society (2008) 13, 261–278. doi:10.1057/pcs.2008.13 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychoanalytic theory and practice have gradually come to recognize that societal prejudice and discrimination against lesbians has frequently resulted in damage to the self, resulting in various symptoms that include depression and low self-esteem. This paper suggests that the recent legal changes that have led to the legalization of same-sex marriage in many parts of the United States and much of the developed world has the potential to reverse that trend and to improve the psychological health of lesbians regardless of their marital status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the nature of interdisciplinary research in psychoanalytic studies by critically assessing the theory of cultural complexes. Too often, 'applied psychoanalysis' becomes 'wild psychoanalysis' when interventions ignore the respective epistemologies and methodologies of the disciplines onto which depth psychological theories are being applied. The notion of cultural complexes is one such case. The claim that the idea is a uniquely Jungian contribution to understanding culture is challenged. Important methodological hurdles that arise when a psychology of the individual is mobilized to explain group phenomena are ignored, as are its debts to the discipline of history. Perhaps most problematic is how the theory potentially sustains a tyrannical framework whereby different ways of remembering a past are stifled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following recent debates within Psychosocial Studies, this paper explores the interpretive trajectories initiated in contrasting conceptualisations of the relation between subject and other. Starting from a discussion of countertransference, I go on to examine Lacan's notion of the 'action of interpretation' and what this might look like within the practice of research. My analysis is organised around instances from an interview-based research project investigating unconscious relations in academic practice. These instances relate to moments of disruption to disciplinary or methodological identities. The analysis thus draws attention to shifting locations and modes of articulation of desire within research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper poses questions raised by Vic Blake's response to the author's paper, "A Fork in the Royal Road: On 'Defining' the Unconscious and its Stakes for Social Theory" (PCS 9/1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that human groupings are not found but made. Reasons – political and psychological – are suggested to explain why groups are made. These are followed by a consideration of how groups are made, specifically, how cognitive and emotional mechanisms are mobilized to create and sustain differentiations between human groupings.Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society (2009) 14, 74–81. doi:10.1057/pcs.2008.47 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines two approaches to the study of films from the perspective of psychoanalysis. The paper argues that the psychoanalytic “reading” of films – and other cultural objects – should at all times be aware not just of the conscious and unconscious meanings present in those films, but also of the way that the unconscious thoughts of the person who is “reading” the film may influence or re-direct any straightforward interpretation. The reading of films is thus a two-way affair: a reading may be directed towards a film, but the film will also be “giving something back.” The article thus examines two psychoanalytic “readings” of films, a first that does not take into account the two-way nature of psychoanalytic reading, and a second that does.Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society (2005) 10, 252–268. doi:10.1057/palgrave.pcs.2100041 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines through a psycho-social perspective constructions of whiteness in contemporary Britain. In particular with reference to the Other of our imagination and the changing nature of what we term asylum in the UK. It is a tentative theoretical discussion of the subject of a 3-year ESRC-funded research project and outlines some of the key questions and research methods before offering some theoretical ideas about difference, home and belonging.Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society (2005) 10, 197–206. doi:10.1057/palgrave.pcs.2100048 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychoanalysis can be considered from three different viewpoints: first as a science and a theory of psychic functioning, secondly as an ethical system, and thirdly as a clinical practice. In this paper, we argue that these three perspectives are deeply inter-related, since they have everything to do with a fundamental structural underlying lack. We discuss why and how psychoanalytic ethics need to assume this lack, how the original contribution psychoanalysis can make to science is related to the study of it, and how psychoanalytic practice is faced with the continuous challenge of starting from the lack as a source of creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]