Lacan Écrits, and Underground Theory

The foundations of psychoanalytic philosophy coming next...

In building Philosophy Portal, I am trying to offer two full courses per year. These are not “just” courses, but total excavations and reconstructions of the foundational texts of the modern intellect. These are not “just” courses, they are containers that allow for a mature and concentrated focus on the greatest minds that have lived in the modern era, and a chance to also engage with such minds, in a community dedicated to the same goal. The Philosophy Portal community produces conferences and anthologies, works of the collective mind, which seek to advance a new philosophical culture for our time. For the first half of 2023, we are busy unfolding the complexities, densities and intensities of Hegel’s Science of Logic (pre-course materials), and we are also hard at work at producing the final results of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra course (pre-course materials), which will be announced later in the year.

However, I am already looking towards, and preparing for, the future. The second half of 2023 will be dedicated towards Freudian psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s Écrits. The Écrits are Jacques Lacan’s core writings, which are often interpreted as obscurantist, extremely difficult and even elitist. However, when presented and contextualised in the light of his work as a whole, they reveal aspects of his psychoanalytic project that have far-reaching implications for philosophy (as well as other fields, e.g. linguistics, anthropology, theology, etc.). While his seminars, delivered in-between 1953 and 1980, are more accessible oral transmissions, the Écrits were organised to compliment the seminars, and a perhaps the offer of a deeper access into Lacan’s philosophical mind.

This course will begin July 16th 2023.

However, this course comes coupled with a new opportunity and offer: an intensive mini-course on Alenka Zupancic’s What Is Sex? taught in collaboration with David McKerracher of Theory Underground. There are two major reasons for this:

1. I have taught What Is Sex? through a YouTube series a few years ago, but have not had a chance to teach it in a more concentrated and interactive form, which I think offers the opportunity to open up new questions that may be especially relevant for discussions around contemporary libidinal politics/economy.

2. In the larger context of Philosophy Portal, an intensive mini-course focusing on one of the most important contemporary Lacanians, Alenka Zupancic, will offer a perfect window into the way in which Lacan’s ideas are being extended and expanded today around the question of sexuality. The idea is that reflection on such a question will function as a perfect material to better comprehend the Écrits.

The What Is Sex? course starts May 7th, and can be accessed on its own, or in a package with the Écrits.

I will be live-streaming with David McKerracher tonight, focused on “three reasons” why it is worth reading What Is Sex? Either join us in the live, or check out the recording!