Our History
1994
The Letter was launched in 1994 and since then has been publishing work from the Irish Lacanian field and from international contributors.
The journal is committed to the publication of work that engages seriously with the discourse launched by Sigmund Freud and developed by Jacques Lacan.
2007
Since 2007, as well as including contributions from others in Ireland and abroad, The Letter has carried psychoanalytic work from the Inter-cartel Study-days of the Irish School for Lacanian Psychoanalysis.
ISLP is set up on the basis of the proposal for a psychoanalytic School in Lacan’s 1964 Founding Act where he wrote: ’... a work is to be accomplished – which, in the field Freud has opened up, restores the cutting ploughshare of its truth – which brings the original praxis that he instituted under the name of psychoanalysis back to the duty that that is incumbent on it in our world – which, by an assiduous criticism, exposes the deviations and compromises that deaden its progress by degrading its use.’
These words inspire the work of The Letter Irish Journal for Lacanian Psychoanalysis. What Freud said in his interview on BBC radio in 1938 still rings true: ‘ ... the struggle is not yet over.'
2008
In 2008, with Issue 39, the journal’s title was changed from The Letter Perspectives on Lacanian Psychoanalysis to The Letter Irish Journal for Lacanian Psychoanalysis in response to developments in Lacanian psychoanalysis in Ireland.
At that time Cormac Gallagher (echoing the title of the first paper in the first issue of The Letter which made use of the famous proposal of Padraig Pearse - ‘Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam - an Irish stew?’) posed the question for our future: “An feidir cúis Freud agus Lacan a dheilt ó chúis an Phiarsaigh?” The Letter takes up this challenge and endeavours to contribute to this turn, this forming, or tour, as the French has it: attending to l’étourdit ...
2023
A selection of articles from the archive are now available free to access. If a visitor to the site is interested in accessing more than this, they can take out an annual subscription. Institutional subscription is €500. There is also a student subscription rate available. Every subscription includes access to the entire archive.
Subscriptions support the maintenance of the archive, running costs and the print run of a limited print version. The Letter is a non-profit entity.
We value your continuing interest and support. It is a crucial contribution to the Lacanian field in Ireland
