Jacques Lacan

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Jacques-Marie Émile Lacan (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was a French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

Lacan became one of the most important figures in the history of psychoanalysis.

Lacan has become an important figure in many fields beyond psychoanalysis.

A controversial figure in the history of psychoanalysis, Lacan is mostly acknowledged for his impact on a broad range of fields within the human sciences.

His impact has been felt across a broad range of disciplines, from feminist philosophy and film theory to the spheres of literature, politics, and cultural studies (literary theory, philosophy, and feminism).

Biography

Click here for a more complete chronology of Jacques Lacan's life.

Originally Lacan studies medicine and later psychiatry.

In 1927, Lacan begins his clincial training in psychiatry at the Sainte-Anne hospital, where he would later teach.

In 1931, Lacan becomes increasingly interest in surrealism and meets Salvador Dalí.

In 1932, Lacan publishes his doctoral disseration (On paranoiac psychosis in its relations to the personality).

In 1933, Lacan begins to attend Alexandre Kojève's lectures on Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind.

The Mirror Stage

In 1936, Lacan presents his paper on the mirror stage to the fourteenth congress of the IPA at Marienbad on 3 August.

The Seminar

In 1953, Lacan begins his first public seminar in Hôpital Sainte-Anne.

These seminars, which will continue for twenty-seven years, soon become the principal platform for Lacan's teaching.

Works

In 1966, a selection of Lacan's collected papers are published under the title Écrits.

Lacan's most important papers are collected in his Écrits (1966); fewer than one-third of them are included in the English Écrits: A Selection (1977).

Lacan presented his most important theoretical contributions to psychoanalysis through his seminar.

Institutional Organizations

In 1934, Lacan begins his analysis with Rudolph Loewenstein, and joins the Société Psychoanalytique de Paris (SPP) as a candidate member.

In 1938, Lacan becomes a full member of the SPP.

Since 1938, Lacan was a member of the SPP, which was a member body of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA).

In 1951, the SPP begins to raise the issue of Lacan's practice of using sessions of variable duration, as opposed to the standard analytical hour.

Lacan defends his use of short sessions.

In 1953, Lacan is elected president of the SPP.

However, six months later he resigns from the SPP to join the Société Française de Psychanalyse (SFP) with D. Lagache, F. Dolto, J. Favez-Boutonier among others.

The SFP sought to become recognized by the IPA as a member society.

In 1963, the SFP is granted affiliation to the IPA as a member society on condition that Lacan be removed from the list of training analysts.

In 1963, Lacan resigns from the SFP and founds his own school, the École Freudienne de Paris (EFP).

In 1980, Lacan dissolves the EFP and creates in its stead the Cause freudienne.

In 1981, the Cause freudienne is dissolved and the École de la Cause freudienne is created to replace it.

Lacan dies in Paris on 9 September, 1981 at the age of eighty.

Bibliography

Click here for a more complete bibliography of Jacques Lacan's work.

• The Language of the Self: The Function of Language in Psychoanalysis*, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1968
• Écrits: A Selection*, transl. by Alan Sheridan, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1977, and revised version, 2002, transl. by Bruce Fink
• Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English, transl. by Bruce Fink in collaboration with Héloïse Fink and Russell Grigg, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2006
• The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis
• The Seminar, Book I. Freud's Papers on Technique, 1953-1954,, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, transl. by J. Forrester, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1988
• The Seminar, Book II. The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954-1955, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, transl. by Sylvana Tomaselli, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1988.
• The Seminar, Book III. The Psychoses, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, transl. by Russell Grigg, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1993.
• The Seminar, Book VII. The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, 1959-1960, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, transl. by Dennis Porter, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1992.
• The Seminar XI, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, transl. by Alan Sheridan, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1977.
• The Seminar XX, Encore: On Feminine Sexuality, the Limits of Love and Knowledge, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, transl. by Bruce Fink, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1998.
• Television: A Challenge to the Psychoanalytic Establishment, ed. Joan Copjec, trans. Jeffrey Mehlman, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1990.