Portal: Research & Theory

📚 Research & Theory Portal

For scholars, researchers, and advanced students of Lacanian psychoanalysis

Lacan's Seminars: Complete Archive

The seminars represent Lacan's primary teaching for over 25 years. Essential reading for serious engagement with Lacanian theory.

Early Seminars (1953-1960)

Seminar I — Freud's Papers on Technique (1953-54) Foundation of Lacanian technique Reading Freud through structural linguistics The ego and the subject Seminar II — The Ego in Freud's Theory (1954-55) Cybernetics and the symbolic Beyond the ego Intersubjectivity Seminar III — The Psychoses (1955-56) Foreclosure of the Name-of-the-Father Psychotic structure Language and psychosis Seminar IV — Object Relations (1956-57) Critique of object relations theory Phallus and lack The three mothers Seminar V — Formations of the Unconscious (1957-58) Jokes and the unconscious Metaphor and metonymy Graph of desire (first version)

Seminar VI — Desire and Its Interpretation (1958-59) Hamlet analysis Desire of the analyst Fantasy and desire Seminar VII — The Ethics of Psychoanalysis (1959-60) Das Ding (The Thing) Jouissance beyond pleasure Antigone and the death drive **Essential reading** Seminar VIII — Transference (1960-61) Plato's Symposium Subject supposed to know Love and desire Seminar IX — Identification (1961-62) Topology begins Unary trait The drive Seminar X — Anxiety (1962-63) Anxiety as signal Object a theorized Clinical implications **Essential reading**

Middle Period (1964-1971)

• Seminar XI — The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis (1964)
  • **START HERE for advanced theory**
  • Unconscious • Drive • Repetition • Transference
  • Gaze and voice
  • Most accessible of the later seminars

• Seminar XII — Crucial Problems for Psychoanalysis (1964-65)
  • Subject of the unconscious
  • Suture

• Seminar XIII — The Object of Psychoanalysis (1965-66)
  • Object a formalized
  • Topology advanced

• Seminar XIV — Logic of Fantasy (1966-67)
  • Fantasy formula: $ ◊ a
  • Logical time

• Seminar XV — Psychoanalytic Act (1967-68)
  • The act and passage
  • Institutional questions

• Seminar XVI — From an Other to the other (1968-69)
  • Loss and surplus
  • Plus-de-jouir

• Seminar XVII — The Other Side of Psychoanalysis (1969-70)
  • **Four discourses** introduced
  • Social bond theory
  • Master's discourse to analyst's discourse
  • **Essential for social/political applications**

Late Seminars (1971-1980)

• Seminar XVIII — On a Discourse That Might Not Be a Semblance (1971)
  • Truth and semblance
  • Written and spoken

• Seminar XIX — ...Or Worse (1971-72)
  • Love and knowledge
  • Sexuation begins

• Seminar XX — Encore (1972-73)
  • **Formulas of sexuation**
  • Other jouissance
  • Feminine jouissance
  • "There is no sexual relation"
  • **Essential reading**

• Seminar XXI — Les non-dupes errent (1973-74)
  • Topology and knots
  • Naming and the father

• Seminar XXII — R.S.I. (1974-75)
  • Borromean knot developed
  • The three registers

• Seminar XXIII — Le sinthome (1975-76)
  • Joyce and the sinthome
  • Fourth ring
  • Beyond symptom

• Seminar XXIV — L'insu que sait de l'une-bévue s'aile à mourre (1976-77)
  • Lalangue
  • The unconscious and speech

• Seminar XXV — Le moment de conclure (1977-78)
  • Topology continues

• Seminar XXVI — La topologie et le temps (1978-79)
  • Time and space

Suggested Reading Order

For researchers new to Lacan's seminars:

1. Seminar XI — Most systematic, accessible entry point
2. Seminar VII — Ethics and Thing, foundational concepts
3. Seminar XX — Sexuation and jouissance
4. Seminar XVII — Four discourses, social applications
5. Seminar X — Anxiety and object a
6. Seminar I — Return to beginning with new understanding

Then explore based on your research interests.

Essential Texts from Écrits

Lacan's collected writings in Écrits (1966):

Core Theoretical Papers

• The Mirror Stage (1949) — Foundation of imaginary
• The Function and Field of Speech and Language (1953) — Lacan's Rome Discourse, programmatic statement
• The Agency of the Letter (1957) — Structuralist linguistics applied to unconscious
• The Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire (1960) — Graph of desire, mature theory
• The Signification of the Phallus (1958) — Phallus as signifier
• Position of the Unconscious (1964) — Alienation and separation

Clinical Papers

• The Direction of the Treatment (1958) — Clinical orientation, essential for practitioners
• Remarks on Daniel Lagache's Presentation (1960) — Transference and desire
• Presentation on Psychical Causality (1946) — Early theoretical position

Case Studies

• On a Question Prior to Any Possible Treatment of Psychosis (1958) — Schreber case, foreclosure
• The Youth of Gide (1958) — Desire and identification

Theoretical Frameworks

The Three Registers

Master Lacan's fundamental framework:

• Symbolic — Language, law, the big Other
• Imaginary — Image, identification, ego
• Real — That which resists symbolization
• RSI — The knotting of the three
• Borromean knot — Topological model
• Sinthome — Fourth ring, supplement

Four Discourses

Lacan's social bond theory:

Discourse	Agent	Other	Production	Truth
Master	S1	S2	a	$
University	S2	a	$	S1
Hysteric	$	S1	S2	a
Analyst	a	$	S1	S2

• Capitalism and discourse — The capitalist discourse
• Social bond — Discourse as social link

Mathemes & Formalization

• Matheme — Formalization in psychoanalysis
• Graph of desire — Mapping desire and demand
• L-schema — Imaginary and symbolic axes
• Schema R — Neurotic structure
• Schema I — Psychotic structure
• Formulas of sexuation — Masculine and feminine positions
• Formula of fantasy — $ ◊ a

Topology

• Topology — Why topology for psychoanalysis?
• Moebius strip — Inside/outside, subject/object
• Torus — Demand and desire
• Cross-cap — Projective plane
• Klein bottle — Non-orientable surface
• Borromean rings — Three register knotting

Key Concepts for Research

Language & Structure

• Signifier and Signified
• Master signifier (S1)
• Battery of signifiers (S2)
• Chain of signifiers
• Quilting point (point de capiton)
• Metaphor and Metonymy
• Lalangue — Beyond language

Subject & Otherness

• Subject — Barred subject ($)
• Ego vs. Subject
• Other (Autre) — Big Other
• Other jouissance
• Subject supposed to know
• Alienation and Separation

Desire, Drive & Jouissance

• Desire — Desire of the Other
• Drive — Partial drives
• Libido — Organ of libido
• Jouissance — Beyond pleasure
• Plus-de-jouir — Surplus enjoyment
• Objet petit a — Object-cause
• Gaze and Voice — Objects

Clinical Structures

• Neurosis — Repression
• Psychosis — Foreclosure
• Perversion — Disavowal
• Sinthome — Beyond symptom

Research Methods

Close Reading Lacan

• Study seminars in original French when possible
• Multiple translations comparison
• Cross-reference concepts across seminars
• Track concept development over time
• Attend to Lacan's linguistic play

Contextualization

• Structuralist linguistics — Saussure, Jakobson
• Philosophy — Hegel, Heidegger, Sartre
• Psychoanalysis — Freud, Klein, Anna Freud
• Anthropology — Lévi-Strauss
• Mathematics — Topology, set theory

Secondary Literature

• Jacques-Alain Miller's courses
• Bruce Fink's introductions
• Dylan Evans' dictionary
• Slavoj Žižek's applications
• Joan Copjec's theory

Current Research Areas

• Neuroscience and psychoanalysis
• Digital culture and subjectivity
• Political applications of Lacan
• Gender and queer theory
• Art and aesthetics
• Film and media studies
• Critical theory
• Philosophy of language

Academic Resources

Journals

• Psychoanalytic Quarterly
• International Journal of Psychoanalysis
• Lacanian Ink
• Analysis
• Journal for Lacanian Studies
• Umbr(a)

Organizations

• World Association of Psychoanalysis (WAP)
• European School of Psychoanalysis
• Association of Lacanian Psychoanalysis
• National psychological associations

Conferences

• Annual Lacan conferences
• WAP Congress
• Association conferences
• University symposia

Online Resources

• Psychoanalytic databases
• Digital archives
• Video lectures
• Audio recordings

Bibliography

Primary Sources

• Lacan, J. (2006). Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English
• Lacan, J. (various). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan (Books I-XXIII)
• Lacan, J. (2019). ...or Worse: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XIX
• Lacan, J. (various). Television and other interviews

Essential Secondary

• Fink, B. (1995). The Lacanian Subject
• Fink, B. (1997). A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis
• Žižek, S. (various works)
• Miller, J.-A. (various courses)
• Evans, D. (1996). An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis
• Copjec, J. (1994). Read My Desire
• Chiesa, L. (2007). Subjectivity and Otherness

Advanced Theory

• Badiou, A. (2009). Theory of the Subject
• Roudinesco, E. (1997). Jacques Lacan
• Julien, P. (1994). Jacques Lacan's Return to Freud
• Verhaeghe, P. (2004). On Being Normal and Other Disorders

Research Tools

• Search Engine — Advanced search
• All Articles — Browse alphabetically
• Categories — Concepts • Clinical • Theory
• Recent Scholarship — Recent updates
• Citations — What links here for any article

Discussion & Community

• Talk Pages — Discuss articles and concepts
• WikiProject Psychoanalysis — Collaborative improvement
• Peer Review — Get feedback on contributions
• Translations — Help translate Lacan texts

Contributing to Research

How to contribute as a researcher:

1. Edit articles — Improve theoretical accuracy
2. Add citations — Link to primary sources
3. Translate passages — Share French-to-English translations
4. Write summaries — Make concepts accessible
5. Connect concepts — Add links and cross-references
6. Upload resources — PDFs, diagrams, charts (with permissions)

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