The Analytic Act and its Evidence, A Lacanian Approach
February 21 - 23, 2020
"In the beginning was the act." - Sigmund Freud
So concludes Sigmund Freud’s Totem and Taboo, bringing to term Freud’s fantasy of the murder of the father of the primal horde and the construction of the Totem as its signifier. This mythical act represents the effraction constituted by the subjection of the human being to a symbolic order that cuts the speaking being off from the enjoyment of total and immediate satisfaction. The speaking being is thereafter subject to the law of castration and the excess (jouissance) constituted by language and the signifier of the defect, lack, and absence of the barred Other.
As a praxis, psychoanalysis is an act that transpires in the frame of speech. Freud’s so-called “talking cure,” which inaugurates psychoanalytic experience and the contemporary therapies that rely upon speech as their medium, is itself a specific kind of act. It is a speech act that results in effects, or evidence, that arise in relation to the act and stance the analyst adopts in the face of the patient’s demand for a cure. But the ethical act of the analyst results in evidence that must be differentiated from other so-called “evidence-based” approaches. While those approaches find their validity in experimental models of repeated measures, our practice results in the singularity of the case in which the analysand, invited through transference, moves from the position of the patient to that of the analysand. This transference moves beyond the transference Freud defined as a form of “resistance”: it entails a shift from an address to the person of the analyst to the work of the unconscious itself, whose frame the analyst takes responsibility for constituting case by case. The analyst’s act aims at maintaining and sustaining that frame. Our work will focus on the question of the act in psychoanalysis, and most specifically the analytic act as opening up a space for speech.
This three-day event is targeted to mental health and medical clinicians for whom “speech” functions as the material with which we work to address suffering and symptom. The event will also be of interest to those whose approach to Lacan is more theoretical and who want to know more about its clinical practice and results. By using lecture/presentation and stimulating discussion, this event will educate attendees to the modalities of psychoanalytic formation that are used to evaluate and conclude evidence of the work of the unconscious in the clinical application of psychoanalysis that follows in Lacan’s wake.
Schedule:
Friday, February 21 - 6:30pm-9:30pm
Saturday, February 22, 9:30am-5:00pm
Sunday, February 23, 10:00am-1:00pm
Learning Objectives
As a result of attending this course, participants should be able to:
- Describe the “analytic act” in terms of its evidential effects
- Discuss and explain the Freudian and Lacanian unconscious insofar as it is a result of the advent of language and speech in the experience of Homo sapiens
- Apply the scansion, or interpretation, of the session—the Lacanian “cut”—in a way that results in the client taking a new position in their relation to presenting symptoms
- Assess and compare different empirical and epistemological categories of “evidence,” and develop a critical awareness of how to advance psychoanalysis as a technique that produces evidence that can be assessed or measured objectively
- Demonstrate the efficacy of your act as an analyst in terms of its effects
- Define ambivalence and assess for it in symptom formation
- Use structural position in the transference as a way to help clients speak of and to their ambivalent feelings and fantasies
- Recognize differences between analytic action/technique and psychotherapy, and critique the efficacy of the analytic stance for addressing acute and severe symptoms
Instructors
Christopher Meyer, PhD, Analyst of the School
Analyst of the School and Faculty of LSP, a member of the Freudian School of Quebec, a member of GIFRIC and member of the California Psychoanalytic Circle of the Freudian School of Quebec. He has a private practice in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy located in Los Angeles, CA, and he is the Doctoral Program Director at The Maple Counseling Center in Beverly Hills, CA.
Raul Moncayo, PhD, Analyst of the School
Supervising analyst of the Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis of the San Francisco Bay Area. Licensed Psychologist. Dr. Moncayo is the author of seven books. His last three books are: Lalangue, Sinthome, Jouissance, and Nomination: A Reading Companion and Commentary on Lacan's Seminar XXIII on the Sinthome (2017); Knowing, Not-Knowing, and Jouissance. Levels, Symbols, and Codes of Experience in Psychoanalysis (2018). The Clinical Practice of Psychoanalysis: Theories and Principles will be released in 2020 by Routledge.
Marcelo Estrada, Analyst of the School, Supervising Analyst, Designated Scholar of the School
Psychoanalyst, Current President and Chairman of the Board of the Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis, Founding Member and Faculty of the School. Has been teaching Lacan and Freud for more than twenty years. Private practice and also provides consultation and supervision.
Stephanie Swales, PhD
An Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Dallas, a practicing psychoanalyst, a licensed clinical psychologist, and a clinical supervisor located in Dallas, Texas. She is the author of two books: Psychoanalysing Ambivalence with Freud and Lacan: On and Off the Couch (Routledge, 2019), co-authored with Carol Owens, and Perversion: A Lacanian Psychoanalytic Approach to the Subject (Routledge, 2012). She is also the author of numerous articles and book chapters on the theory and practice of Lacanian psychoanalysis. She is the founder of the Dallas/Fort Worth area Lacan Study Group, serves on the Board of the Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis as an Analyst Member, recently served as the president of the Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology, and is on the executive board of the Dallas Postgraduate Program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.
Benjamin Davidson PhD, Research Analyst of the School
Faculty member and research psychoanalyst of the San Francisco Bay Area Lacanian School, and maintains a private practice in Palo Alto and San Francisco. Since 2010 he has taught seminars on Lacanian and Freudian analysis at Stanford University, where he works as a dean. "Revolt!," his extended essay in two acts, was published in the summer of 2019 by the European Journal of Psychoanalysis, which he co-edits.
Bret Fimiani, PsyD
An analyst of the SF Bay Area Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis and a clinical psychologist. He works with people experiencing psychosis and extreme states in his private practice and at the Haight-Ashbury Integrated Care Center in SF. He is the chairperson for the Northern California Chapter of the International Society for the Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis and he is a board member for the Bay Area Hearing Voices Network. His research interests include the ethics of psychosis and the integration of clinical and peer models. He is completing a book titled Psychosis and Extreme States: An Ethic for Treatment (2021, Palgrave-Macmillan).
$225 pre-registration, $250 at the door, $175 student rate
12 CE/CME
Target Audience: This conference will be informative for mental health clinicians at every level of development and students as well.
CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDIT
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters of ths CME/CE program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.
PHYSICIANS: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the New Center for Psychoanalysis. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for the maximum of 12 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
PSYCHOLOGISTS: The New Center for Psychoanalysis is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. New Center for Psychoanalysis maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Full attendance is required for psychologists to receive credit; partial credit may not be awarded based on APA guidelines. For the psychologists’ records, certificates of attendance are provided at the completion of the course.
SOCIAL WORKERS, MARRIAGE and FAMILY THERAPISTS (LCSW, LMFT, ASW, IMF, LEP, LPCC, PCCI)
The New Center for Psychoanalysis is a continuing education provider that has been approved by the American Psychological Association, a California Board of Behavioral Sciences recognized approval agency.
REGISTERED NURSES: The New Center for Psychoanalysis is an accredited provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing (Provider #CEP1112). Registered Nurses may claim only the actual number of hours spent in the educational activity for credit.
Schedule
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| The Analytic Act and its Evidence, A Lacanian Approach | February 21 - 23, 2020 |
| The Analytic Act and its Evidence, A Lacanian Approach | February 21 - 23, 2020 |
| The Analytic Act and its Evidence, A Lacanian Approach | February 21 - 23, 2020 |