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The Letter, Issue 62, Summer 2016, Pages iv - xi

The Letter, Issue 61, Spring 2016, Pages 77 - 81 BOOK REVIEW by Marion Deane The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in Our Times Barbara Taylor Hamish Hamilton, London, 2014. Barbara Taylor is a much-acclaimed academic historian. The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in Our Times is a meditation on her own experience with mental illness. Taylor was a patient at Friern— otherwise known as the Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum— in North London during a period of transition within the field of psychiatric health care. It is from this unique perspective that she chronicles both her own emotional breakdown and the demise of the Victorian Asylum system in general. However, the main purpose of her memoir is, as she puts it, to serve as ‘a work of gratitude’ to those friends, family, doctors and nurses who helped her along the way and, in particular, to the ‘psychoanalytical process and the analyst who practised it with [her]’.

The Letter, Issue 61, Spring 2016, Pages 45 - 75 SEMINARS XVII AND XVIII WITH XXIII: ON A UNIVERSITY DISCOURSE THAT MIGHT NOT BE JOYCEAN Daniel C. Bristow This essay attempts to elucidate a new way in which to envisage Joycean discourse, which has so often been yoked to that of the university discourse outlined by Lacan in a fourfold schema in Seminar XVII, The Other Side of Psychoanalysis . To reach this goal it puts the aforementioned Seminar into relief against Seminars XVIII, On a Discourse that Might not be a Semblance and XXIII, Le sinthome , as well as against work of a third interlocutor, Jacques Derrida. To move towards a conceptualisation of Joycean discourse, it takes into consideration multiform Lacanian themes, such as ‘enverity’, the sinthome, the Name-of-the-Father, enjoyment and semblance, and reads them against the work of Joyce, particularly Finnegans Wake . Keywords: Jacques Lacan; James Joyce; Jacques Derrida; university discourse; Seminar XVII; Seminar XVIII; Seminar XXIII No Name of the Father is tenable without thunder, and everyone knows very well that we do not even know what thunder is the sign of. It is the very figure of the semblance. — Jacques Lacan, Seminar XVIII Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk! — James Joyce, Finnegans Wake

The Letter, Issue 61, Spring 2016, Pages 35 - 44 THE AGES OF THE CHILD [1] Michael Gerard Plastow Oedipus was the only one to successfully answer the question posed by the Theban Sphinx. His answer saved his life, but it was also a turning away from the enigma of sexuality by reducing the riddle to a developmental schema. From Oedipus’ response, it is evident that the developmental conception is age-old, not a recent scientific invention. But the child does not permit of any clear definition established by ages and stages. Our modern notion of childhood has come about through the repression of sex and death in the child. I propose that the child first exists in-fancy , in the fancy or fantasm of each parent, leaving an indelible mark upon the soul of each child. Keywords: infancy; child; development; infanticide; mother love; fantasy; fantasm. Our modern notion of the child emerged in the decline of the Middle Ages and the privileged place that the child occupies in the family is quite recent. It is my thesis that the modern ‘sentiment of childhood’ described by the historian Philippe Ariès has come about through the repression of both infantile sexuality and mortality: sex and death being the two great enigmas according to Freud. By examining this ‘silent history’ [2] of the child, we might endeavour to locate the lost discourses of childhood.

The Letter, Issue 61, Summer 2016, Pages 31 - 34 L’INSU QUE SAIT DE L’UNE-BÉVUE S’AILE À MOURRE. AN OVERVIEW[1 ],[ 2 ] Marc Darmon This overview of Lacan’s Seminar XXIV from 1976-77 addresses the many layers of meaning discernible in its title L’insu que sait de l’une-bévue s’aile à mourre . Lacan’s remarkable return to the topology of the torus, his subtle musings on the unconscious, love, poetry and the real convey a sense of the urgency regarding the task that, even in these final years of his teaching, he regarded as unfinished. Keywords: l’une-bévue; torus; poetry; Dante; Didier-Weill; game of la mourre /game of Morra The equivocal title of the seminar calls out for interpretation. Written in lalangue or rather in l’élangues , [3] the central element commanding our attention in the title is the word l’une-bévue . This translates into English as the a-blunder . Lacan is using a method he came across in Joyce the year before the seminar in fashioning this word. In its enigmatic grammar, it is readable in French as une-bévue and can be partly understood in German as Unbewusst . The translation of Unbewusst by l’une-bévue is in itself a witticism, that is to say, an attempt on Lacan’s part to invoke a formation of the unconscious such as the parapraxis, the lapsus , the dream, or the symptom. What is a parapraxis or a lapsus if not a blunder, une bévue ? But such a translation almost gives credence to the phrase cited by Dante, who, when speaking of the word ‘love’ evokes the perfect fit between the word and the thing : nomina sunt consequentia rerum (names are the consequence of things). L’une-bévue does not possess the defect of being a negative word like ‘the unconscious’ and it does not run the risk, like it, of being confused with unconsciousness.

The Letter, Issue 61, Spring 2016, Pages 23 - 30 SITTING THERE SAYING NOTHING. WHAT IS INVOLVED IN THE PSYCHOANALYTIC ACT? [1] Helen Sheehan This paper explores what is at stake when speaking about the Psychoanalytic Act - this with reference to Lacan’s ‘67-’68 seminar of the same name. The central place of Freud’s repetition compulsion as a given of discourse is emphasized. Questions related to what it means to practice as a psychoanalyst, including the interrogation of Being, the end of analysis and the function of psychoanalytic societies, are also raised. Keywords: Metaphysics; repetition; discourse; the analyst as instrument; the end of analysis; Carl Rogers; psychotherapy To arrive at a preliminary definition of the Psychoanalytic Act [2] as described by Lacan in his seminar of 1967-1968 we have to begin by coming to terms with endings, with all their equivocations. There are four such endings that underline this seminar. I will briefly mention three and then say something about the ending appropriate for our psychoanalytic purpose - that which Freud calls Analysis Terminable and Interminable . The other endings are: the end of Metaphysics, the end of Theology and the end of Science.

The Letter, Issue 61, Spring 2016, Pages iv - viii

The Letter, Issue 59/60, Summer/Autumn 2015, Pages 91 - 105 LACAN’S USE OF TOPOLOGY – A CHRONOLOGY: PART 1 [1] Tony Hughes Lacan’s use of topology seems to have begun with the Rome Discourse in September 1953. From that time on until the end of his life he used it extensively throughout his seminars, and perhaps in other areas of his work. This paper sets out chronologically the occasions from 1953 to 1955 where he referred to topology either directly or indirectly. It also attempts to give some insights into how space is conceived in topology. That Lacan’s work is mostly done by reference to types of space that are different to that of Euclid is essential to our reading of Lacan. Some aspects of this space are discussed, as well as the link between the work of Lévi- Strauss and topology. Keywords: topology; Moebian space; the projective plane; Granon-Lafont; bosons and fermions; the cross-cap; the Moebius strip. Introduction It is hard to define the precise point at which I got hooked by Lacan’s work on topology. It is possible to highlight a certain moment in L’Etourdit, where, at the start of the Second Turn, Lacan describes some aspects of his topology. These sections on topology are hard to follow, because Lacan deliberately avoids the use of diagrams. However, this lack was compensated for to some extent, by virtue of Fieren’s Reading L’Etourdit (2002) . [2] His use of diagrams of the torus, Moebius strip, Klein bottle and the cross-cap, provided some clarification. As I began to delve more deeply into the topic, I became aware of a question – when did topology begin in Lacan’s work? Consequently I consulted Krutzen’s Index [3] which details many of the various topics in Lacan’s seminars.

The Letter, Issue 59/60, Summer/Autumn 2015, Pages 77 - 90 FÍR FLATHEMON: THE RULER’S TRUTH Marion Deane A belief in the power of the spoken word as a vehicle for truth was of IndoEuropean origin. It formed the basis of Early Irish kingship ideology. The tale Feis Tigi Becfholtaig ‘Sojourn in the House of Little Wealth’ concludes with the people’s response to a king’s public declaration of truth. The aim of his speech was to thank them for their past co-operation and to guarantee that he, in the interests of justice, would continue to reciprocate their services. The selected portion of the tale, as printed below, deals with the process through which he comes to know the truth that he will later proclaim. This paper will examine the relationship between truth and reality as formulated in this excerpt against Lacan’s contention that there is no ultimate reality. Key words: truth; reality; knowledge; being; lack; adequation theory

The Letter, Issue 59/60, Summer/Autumn 2015, Pages 69 - 76 HOW SIGNIFICANT IS THE CONCEPT OF INEXACT INTERPRETATION FOR THE PSYCHOANALYTIC CLINIC? Monika Kobylarska This paper was presented at the inter-cartel meeting of The Irish School for Lacanian Psychoanalysis (ISLP) in the Milltown Institute on 13 June 2015. It addresses the concept of inexact interpretation and its significance for psychoanalytic practice, thoroughly discussed by Edward Glover in 1931 and repeatedly commented on by Jacques Lacan. Keywords: inexact interpretation; suggestion; therapeutic effects; psychoanalytic treatment; the British Psychoanalytical Society; Edward Glover. Introduction Jacques Lacan described Edward Glover’s article The Therapeutic Effect of Inexact Interpretation: A Contribution to the Theory of Suggestion as ‘one of the most remarkable and most intelligent articles which could be written on such a subject’ , and in which he added that ‘it is really in fact the starting base from which the question of interpretation can be approached.’ [1] Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to study it and explore its relevance for psychoanalytic practice. Lacan addresses the problem of the therapeutic effects of inexact interpretation in The Function and Field of Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis . He refers to it again in The Direction of the Treatment and the Principles of its Power and in his seminar on The Logic of Phantasy .

The Letter, Issue 69/60, Summer/Autumn 2015, Pages 63 - 68

The Letter, Issue 59/60, Summer/Autumn 2015, Pages 57 - 62 PSYCHOANALYSIS: A MAPPING OUT, TURNING THE SYMBOLIC INSIDE OUT [1] Terry Ball This paper considers the notion of psychoanalysis as a ‘mapping out’ which was put forward by Lacan in his 24th Seminar, L’insu que sait de l’une bévue s’aile à mourre . The implied synonyms for ‘mapping out’, such as, ‘identifying with one’s symptom’ and ‘turning inside out’, are highlighted so as to gain some insight into this notion. How one is to understand and situate the symbolic intervention of the analyst and interpretation as a cut are also explored, as are the notions of the symptom – a symbolic representation with an effect in the Real and the possibility of dissolving this effect. Lacan’s toric depictions of these ideas are also presented. Keywords: inside; outside; inside-out; unconscious; mapping out; identification; symptom; sense; meaning; torus; Borromean knot; Real; Symbolic; Imaginary This paper begins with two quotations from Jacques Lacan’s (1976-1977) seminar, L’insu que sait de l’une bévue s’aile à mourre , in which, talking about the clinic of psychoanalysis and its aim, Lacan refers to an inside, an outside and a turning inside out: That psychoanalysis is attached to putting outside what is inside, namely, the unconscious... – [though this] is not without posing some questions [2] ...what do we see by proceeding as we usually do by a cut, by a split, to turn the Symbolic inside out? [3]

The Letter, Issue 59/60, Summer/Autumn 2015, Pages 47 - 56 NO WORDS TO SAY IT? EXPLORATORY THOUGHTS ON FIERENS’ ‘EQUANIMITY’ OF SPEAKING AND ‘AUTISTIC’ POSITIONS IN THE PSYCHOANALYTIC DISCOURSE [1] James O’Connor In his Second Reading of Lacan’s L’Etourdit , Christian Fierens introduces the autistic discourse – equating it to that of the speaker ‘…What the speaker says or what the autistic does…’. Speech presents itself in the form of statements (énoncés), but also silences: ‘Look! I am silent. Look! He is silent. Silence being a potential statement. Yet Lacan speaks of Anxiety as that which remains unspoken while Freud introduced the return of the repressed: the very eruption of the soma - an encounter with the Real? – a consequence of repression – a silence! The psychoanalytic act (out), which Fierens insists the analyst ‘…must be doing…’. ‘…Abstinence has nothing to do with doing nothing…’ Keywords: differance; the roles of the analyst; autism. L’Etourdit by Lacan we are advised, comes with a health warning, being reputedly unamenable to reading and indecipherable to scrutiny. L’Etourdit – les tours dit – the journey of – di, say(ing) and dit(said) - to stun, to make dizzy. It is indeed all that. A text which Gallagher’s 2014 translation suggests is not for interpretation. …‘ Interpretation is not absolute clarity ’.. he says. And for whom is interpretation? Not for the text, which has little regard for and is blind to commentary. The blind look of Tiresias is evoked. However he, beyond display and demonstration makes us divine the absence at stake within interpretation. That deprivation can lead to an alternative development presumably. It is consoling in this respect, to me specifically, if not to readers of L’Etourdit generally, that Tiresias received information and wisdom in various ways. Sometimes, like the oracles, he would receive visions and locutions. At other times he would listen for the songs of birds, or ask for descriptions of visions and also various pictures which appeared from time to time within the smoke of burnt offerings and then interpret these. So as Dylan might have intoned - the answers may very well be blowing in the wind.

The Letter, Issue 59/60, Summer'Autumn 2015, Pages 39 - 46 STRUGGLING WITH LACAN’S L’ÉTOURDIT AND FIERENS’ SECOND READING ...[ 1] Mary Cullen The paper outlines a circling around L’Etourdit and Christian Fierens’ second reading of it in order to find a ‘way in’. Starting from a place of ‘sense’- that of the universal, language, and current public discourse – attention is then brought to focus on the rigour of the requirement of an analytic formation. The work of Winnicott towards the end of his life in attempting to describe the place where life begins is juxtaposed with the ‘Real’ of Lacan, leading to a grappling with the effect of the structure coming from the unconscious and an outline of progression to date in understanding Fierens’ second and third formulae of sexuation. Keywords: public discourse; modal structure; Winnicott; second formula of sexuation; third formula of sexuation. Lacan ‘…..it is uniquely by equivocation that interpretation works. There must be something in the signifier that resonates’ [2] Sunset Hails a Rising Dying by inches, I can hear the sound Of all the fine words for the flow of things To mark the path into the killing ground The poets and philosophers have used Perhaps their one aim was to give words wings, Or even just to keep themselves amused… These lines by Clive James, from the last poem in his recent publication, [3] - written as he believed himself to be dying - evoked for me the notion of the signifier that resonates.

The Letter, Issue 59/60, Summer/Autumn 2015, Pages 1 - 38 THE PSYCHOANALYTIC DISCOURSE. A SECOND READING OF LACAN’S L’ÉTOURDIT Christian Fierens C. Fierens , Le discours psychanalytique . Une deuxième lecture de L’étourdit de Lacan. Toulouse, Point hors ligne, Erès, 2012. Trans. C. Gallagher 2014. TABLE OF CONTENTS[1] Presentation Introduction: The differ a nce 1. THE ROLES OF THE ANALYST The analyst who knows. The dogmatic analyst The analyst who does not know. The sceptical analyst The analyst who tracks stating. The dynamic analyst The analyst who says what there is. The analyst as witness 2. THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF THE PSYCHOANALYTIC DISCOURSE Without resources With resilience ‘There is no sexual relationship’ or the development of the matheme of the impossible The undecidable Conclusion 3. THE LOGICS Of SEXUATION... 4 The ‘masculine phallic formulae’ The question of the subject The impasse The ‘feminine phallic formulae’ 4. THE STUFF OF THE PSYCHOANALYTIC DISCOURSE AND ITS CUT The philosophical discourse and the psychoanalytic discourse: the same stuff The cut-the stitch, the effacing of the psychoanalytic discourse The novelty of the psychoanalytic discourse Saying privileged in the psychoanalytic discourse 5. THE SENSE OF THE PSYCHOANALYTIC DISCOURSE The comfort and the impossibility of the psychoanalytic group The rejected psychoanalyst The directive idea of the psychoanalytic discourse The psychoanalytic discourse as compared to the other discourses 6. THE STRUCTURE OF THE PSYCHOANALYTIC DISCOURSE, IS INTERPRETATION Between meaning and absence, the flickering of sense Structure The equivocation of interpretation The three kernel-points of equivocation and the psychoanalytic discourse as Borromean PERSPECTIVES FOR THE PSYCHOANALYTIC DISCOURSE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES CHAPTER 3 THE LOGICS OF SEXUATION For classical logic, the real is approached in the order of truth: in principle it would be a matter of finding, of producing, of guaranteeing the truth of propositions, namely, the equivalence between what is said and the real to which the said is referred. It is a logic of saids . The discourse of analysis brings out what is forgotten in the saids, namely, the saying . Freud’s saying re-centres psychoanalysis on the phallus not as the meaning of a pivotal said or of a general statufied symbol, but in the sense of a re-launching saying. If Freud saw in the Oedipus complex the shibboleth of psychoanalysis and if the phallus is what is at stake in the Oedipus complex, it is not to produce saids that are true and applicable to all, men and women, it is in the experience of the re-launching of the saying of the treatment for the analyser and for the analyst.

The Letter, Issue 59/60, Summer/Autumn 2015, Pages iv - vii