Philadelphia Lacan Study Group

Saint Agatha, by Tiepolo

Saint Agatha, by Tiepolo

The Ecstacy of St. Teresa, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

The Ecstacy of St. Teresa, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Oedipus

Oedipus explains the riddle of the Sphinx, by J. A. D. Ingres

Detail of Saint Lucy, by del Cossa

Detail of Saint Lucy, by del Cossa

Wednesday, December 6, 2017 (7:00 pm to 8:30 pm)

New Reading Seminar: THE ART OF THE SYMPTOM

“ I am hereby announcing what this year shall be my examination of art. In what way is artifice expressly able to target what presents itself in first instance as a symptom? In what way can art—the artisanal—foil, as it were, what imposes as a symptom? Namely, truth.” Jacques Lacan, Seminar Le Sinthome, Book XXIII Session I, 18 November 1975

When Lacan came up with his coining of the sinthome, he proposed a new kind of symptom that was non-pathological and had a function analogous to that of art. Lacan discovered it in the writings of Joyce. Joyce’s art was meant to compensate for a defect in his subjective structure, which saved him from madness. The sinthome as art repairs faults in the psyche and works as a supplement. The sinthome is art taken in an extended sense because it organizes a know-how, a singular knowledge that cannot be transferred to another person but holds individual subjects and prevents them from falling apart.

In this reading group we engage in a close reading and discussion of Lacan’s Seminar Le Sinthome Book XXIII.
(Jacques Lacan, The Sinthome, Book XXII, Ed. J. A. Miller, trans. A. R. Price. Cambridge and Malden MA: Polity, 2016.)
The reading seminars are an open forum for the discussion of psychoanalysis. Curated by Patricia Gherovici. Seminars are free and open to all. Questions? Email: contact@lacangroup.org.

Where? Kelly Writers House, ROOM # 202 Second Floor
38th and Locust Streets, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.