A series of seminars on Ordinary Psychosis based around Jacques-Alain Miller’s groundbreaking text “Ordinary Psychosis Revisited”
Since its introduction in 1998, the concept of ordinary psychosis has provoked more questions about the Lacanian clinic than it has provided answers. J.-A. Miller’s seminal text “Ordinary Psychosis Revisited” is where these questions first came into focus in a way that allowed us to read clinical cases in a new way. This followed a moment of uncertainty that put many analytical practitioners on the spot: is it psychosis or is it neurosis? This hesitation often pointed to an insufficiency in the differential clinic organised solely in terms of either the inscription or foreclosure of the Name-of-the-Father – a concept from Lacan’s early teaching which, in some quarters, has been raised to an almost universal power. Miller’s ordinary psychosis does not fall within this remit. Deduced from Lacan’s teaching nevertheless, it no longer offers the wholesale assurance traditionally attributed to the universal. What we see now are the effects of a displacement and diffusion of the Name-of-the-Father into so many semblants seeking to bolster and shore up what might otherwise fail. Some indications of this shift can be striking, showing phenomena of disconnection and of unplugging in either one or more of the three registers R.S.I. Others emerge as minute and discreet signs, traumatic marks and subtle resonances pointing to variants of what Lacan called a disturbance at the innermost juncture of the subject’s sense of life, the body and language. Over the course of 3 meetings, this mini-series will follow Miller’s invention and elucidation to the letter, while drawing on clinical references and consequences to which the reading list below gives ample testimony.
With the participation of Sophia Berouka, Oriol Cobacho, Nicolas Duchenne, Aino-Marjatta Mäki, Alan Rowan and Bogdan Wolf (introduction and moderation).
