Revolutions in Technique: Lacan’s R/evolution in Psychoanalysis at IPTAR

IPTAR Program Committee: Jeanne Even (Chair), Eva Atsalis, Susan Berger, Carolyn Ellman, Steven Ellman, Susan Finkelstein, Anna Fishzon, Judy Ann Kaplan, Masha Mimran, Bruce Reis, Jamieson Webster

PROGRAM

9am

BREAKFAST
9:30am – 10:30am

BRUCE FINK, LACAN’S REVOLUTION IN TECHNIQUE

This presentation will highlight similarities and differences between Lacan’s approach to psychoanalytic technique and both Freud’s approach and that of numerous contemporary analysts from non-Lacanian traditions. Whereas in Lacan’s approach the unconscious remains fundamental, the royal road to it is neither 1) the analyst’s countertransference, projective identification, self-disclosure, or intuition, nor 2) the analysand’s affective states. With his reformulation of the unconscious as the “subject supposed to know” and his reconceptualization of the psychoanalytic setting, we will explore Lacan’s innovations in technique with neurotics, including punctuation, oracular/poetic interpretation, scansion, the variable-length session, delayed use of the couch, and then focus on nonmeaning as opposed to understanding. The role of analysts as “giving what they do not have” as opposed to what they do have will be explored at length.

10:30am – 11am
RESPONSE BY PATRICIA GHEROVICI

11am – 11:15am
COFFEE BREAK

12:30pm – 2pm

LUNCH

2pm – 3:30pm
CASE PRESENTATION

Anna Fishzon, PhD will present a clinical case. Dr. Fink will apply his clinical concepts to the case and provide clinical supervision.

3:30pm – 4:30pm

Plenary discussion open to the audience.

Bruce Fink, PhD is a practicing Lacanian psychoanalyst and analytic supervisor who trained in France with the psychoanalytic institute Jacques Lacan created shortly before his death, the École de la Cause freudienne in Paris. He has translated several of Lacan’s works into English—including Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English, Seminar XX: Encore, and Seminar VIII, Transference—and is the author of numerous books on Lacan, including The Lacanian Subject, A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Lacan to the Letter, Fundamentals of Psychoanalytic Technique, Against Understanding (2 volumes), and Lacan on Love. Most recently, he published A Clinical Introduction to Freud: Techniques for Everyday Practice. A board member of the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center, he has also penned several mysteries involving a character loosely based on Jacques Lacan: The Psychoanalytic Adventures of Inspector Canal, Death by Analysis, Odor di Murderer/Scent of a Killer, and The Purloined Love.

Patricia Gherovici, PhD is a psychoanalyst and analytic supervisor. She is co-founder and director of the Philadelphia Lacan Group and Associate Faculty in the Psychoanalytic Studies Minor at the University of Pennsylvania (PSYS). She is Honorary Member at IPTAR and a member of Apres-Coup Psychoanalytic Association in New York. Her books include: The Puerto Rican Syndrome (Other Press, 2003) and Please Select Your Gender: From the Invention of Hysteria to the Democratizing of Transgenderism (Routledge, 2010). She has edited two collections, both with Manya Steinkoler: Lacan On Madness: Madness, Yes You Can’t (Routledge, 2015) and Lacan, Psychoanalysis and Comedy (Cambridge University Press, 2016). Her new book, Transgender Psychoanalysis: A Lacanian Perspective on Sexual Difference, was published by Routledge in June 2017.

Learning objectives:

1) to grasp the Lacan’s conceptualization of the analytic setting

2) to grasp Lacan’s approach to interpretation

3) to grasp the role of the analyst as regards love and the analysand’s demands

Social Workers: The Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, Inc. (IPTAR) SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0226.

Licensed Psychoanalysts: The Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts (P-0011).

Licensed Creative Arts Therapists: The Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists (#CAT-0037). CE credits will be granted to participants who have registered, have documented evidence of attendance of the entire program and have completed the on-line evaluation form. Upon completion of the evaluation form a Certificate of Completion will be emailed to all participants who comply with these requirements.