Thomas Svolos – författare

This book articulates a possible future for Lacan and psychoanalysis, through an exploration of the historical trajectory of psychoanalysis and a survey of the ways Lacanian psychoanalysis offers a unique response to the pressing clinical demands.

This book articulates a possible future for Lacan and psychoanalysis, through an exploration of the historical trajectory of psychoanalysis and a survey of the ways Lacanian psychoanalysis offers a unique response to the pressing clinical demands.

This book articulates a possible future for Lacan and psychoanalysis, through an exploration of the historical trajectory of psychoanalysis and a survey of the ways Lacanian psychoanalysis offers a unique response to the pressing clinical demands.

If psychoanalysis will survive in the twenty-first century, this book's wager is that it will be Lacanian psychoanalysis. Today, the survival of psychoanalysis is in question. Even Jacques Lacan himself, at the peak of his influence when psychoanalysis was a dominant discourse, did not believe that psychoanalysis would triumph and merely posed questions about the survival of psychoanalysis, when future subjects would want something else.This book articulates a possible future for Lacan and psychoanalysis, through an exploration of the historical trajectory of psychoanalysis and a survey of the ways Lacanian psychoanalysis offers a unique response to the pressing clinical demands of our time.Much of the book stages this through explications of specific ways Lacanian concepts have developed as a reading of the clinical - as well as the broader psychic and social - phenomena of our moment in history. Psychosis, which is an increasing clinical phenomena, and addiction, which is often described as a contemporary epidemic, are given longer treatment here, while other chapters address central concepts such as trauma, fantasy, the symptom, the body, transference, knowledge, and love.The book closes with two sections of reflections on psychoanalysis outside of the Lacanian orientation and on the general mental health field.

With chapters from Rik Loose, Fabian Naparstek, Patricia Gherovici, Bruce Fink, Thomos Svolos and many others, the anthology is for people interested in the topic of addictions, or in Lacanian psychoanalysis, and especially for those interested in how the two intersect. Lacan and Addiction is based on papers presented at a 2006 conference where Lacanians from around the world gathered to speak about addictions. Conference participants explored the complexity of the problem for the individual, society, clinicians, and for treatment. In the current climate, where addiction is mostly treated by variations of twelve step approaches and psychopharmacological "countermeasures", it is all too easy to lose sight of the dimensions of addiction that render it not just a disease to be managed but rather a significant form of human suffering and a subjective responsibility, both of which are critical components of addiction treatment. More and more, addiction treatment is turning away from psychological and psychoanalytic theorization and towards psychopharmacological measures; this anthology attempts to rectify that situation.

In this book, Thomas Svolos tests the claim that a practicing psychoanalyst is afforded a unique perspective on issues of politics, social and cultural affairs, trained, as they are, to look out for that which is not readily transparent to a patient. This might be something opaque, something bizarre even, something that is part of the experience of the patient that they are not conscious of, what Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan called, at different points in their work, desire, libido, or, jouissance. It argues that by taking account, in one way or another, of desire, libido and jouissance, we might find another dimension to political, social and cultural matters, a dimension that is present, but generally opaque, to those who deal with them.In a series of original texts and edited dialogues, brought together for the first time, this lively and accessible work offers novel insights on topics ranging from race, climate change and partisan politics, to science fiction and Bruce Springsteen. It will appeal to students, scholars and those with a general interest in psychoanalysis, politics, cultural studies and critical theory.