INTRODUCTION TO LACAN: BASIC CONCEPTS

This two-day seminar provides an overview of Lacan’s fundamental theoretical concepts and does not presuppose prior familiarity with Lacanian theory. After providing an overview of Lacan’s life and seminal influences on his work the instructors will introduce the theory of the signifier to explain Lacan’s theory of the unconscious and of desire, and the formation of the subject. A presentation of the registers of the Real, Imaginary, and Symbolic will serve as background for a review of other seminal concepts, such as Lacan’s view of narcissism, identification, and the drive, as well as the distinctions between pleasure and jouissance.