Studying Lacan's Seminars IV and V

Carol Owens and Nadezhda Almqvist are psychoanalytic practitioners in Dublin. They are the founders of the Dublin Lacan study group.

"A stellar constellation of readers analyze two of Lacan’s major seminars here, one on our relation to the object and the other on "unconscious formations" like dreams, daydreams, and fantasies. Fascinating work will be found here on phobia, fetishism, and perversion more generally, as well as on witticisms, lack, metaphor, the phallus, castration, and clinical practice with children and adults." --Bruce Fink, Lacanian psychoanalyst, author of several books on Freud and Lacan, translator into English of Lacan’s Ecrits and Seminars VI: Desire and Its Interpretation, VIII: Transference, and XX: Encore"At last, a scholarly examination of Lacan’s Seminars IV and V by practitioners who know how to read Lacan and show us the intimate link between conceptual developments and clinical work. This book couples two seminars, enabling us to trace the to and fro in Lacan’s Seminar between subject and signifier, and here from lack to desire." --Ian Parker, Psychoanalyst, Secretary Manchester Psychoanalytic Matrix."Studying Lacan’s Seminars IV and V represents a fundamental breakthrough in the understanding of Jacques Lacan’s thought. Through a series of fecund essays unpacking the intricacies of two of the more difficult early seminars, this volume sheds light on key problems like phobia, the phallus, and lack. Anyone who wants to know anything about the psychoanalytic project must view the collection that Carol Owens and Nadezhda Almquist have put together as utterly essential." -- Professor Todd McGowan, University of Vermont"As if live-streaming the seminars, this excellent collection highlights Lacan’s contemporary relevance by putting it into action. Punctuated with clinical material, the book moves with ease between theory and practice, astutely deploying controversial psychoanalytic notions such as lack, desire, and the phallus. Drawing useful distinctions between phobias, fetishism, and perversion, the authors explain the clinical use of dreams and jokes. These forceful essays, all written with verve and clarity, set a model for the transmission of psychoanalysis while providing an indispensable companion to Lacan’s seminars IV and V." --Patricia Gherovici, psychoanalyst and author, Transgender Psychoanalysis: A Lacanian Perspective on Sexual Difference (Routledge, 2017)

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSABOUT THE EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORSPREFACERUSSELL GRIGGINTRODUCTIONCAROL OWENS AND NADEZHDA ALMQVISTPHOBIA/FETISHCHAPTER ONEDrawing the Urinary Trait: Fantasy and Analytic Technique in Ruth Lebovici’s Treatment of a Transitory PerversionDany NobusCHAPTER TWOThe lessons of little HansLeonardo S. RodríguezCHAPTER THREE"Once Bitten, Forever Smitten": phobias, fetishes, and small boysCarol OwensCHAPTER FOURThe Phobic and Fetish ObjectsStephanie SwalesLACK CHAPTER FIVEPrivation: A Logical Step between Castration and FrustrationRolf FlorCHAPTER SIXAsexuality, Absence, and the Dialectic of SubstitutionKevin MurphyCHAPTER SEVENMuch Ado about More than Nothing: Thoughts on "difficult" cases and Lacan’s Seminar IVManya SteinkolerPHALLUSCHAPTER EIGHTThe Phallus of the Fifties – Those Years of ‘‘Tranquil Possession’’Olga Cox CameronCHAPTER NINEThe Phallus: Crossroads or Impasse? Queering Desire via Seminar VSarah Meehan O’CallaghanCHAPTER TENTo be or not to be the phallus: Lacan, Genet, and WildeChristine GormleyWITZCHAPTER ELEVENLacan reading Freud: on the relationship of Seminar V to Jokes and Their Relationship to the UnconsciousP. G. YoungCHAPTER TWELVE"Did you hear that Tom’s dick was hairy?" Witz, Cure, and the Transmission of PsychoanalysisJamieson Webster and Marcus CoelenGRAPH OF DESIRECHAPTER THIRTEENOn the Development of Lacan’s Graph of DesireDan CollinsPATERNAL METAPHORCHAPTER FOURTEENFather Love - From Oedipus complex to Paternal MetaphorMegan WilliamsOBSESSIONALCHAPTER FIFTEEN"Why Can’t a Woman be More Like a Man?"The Signifier and the ObsessionalNadezhda AlmqvistCHAPTER SIXTEENObsessional Desire in Seminar V: The Exploits of TantalusLorenzo ChiesaAPPENDIXTransitory Sexual Perversion in the Course of a Psychoanalytic TreatmentRuth LeboviciINDEX