Lacan and Other Heresies

This volume gathers together the recent writings of the analysts and members of the Freudian School of Melbourne and the Belgian analyst Christian Fierens, displaying the ongoing interrogation by the School of Lacanian psychoanalysis into its history, theories and practices.Within the framework of Lacan’s interventions in Freudian psychoanalysis, the book in particular highlights Lacan’s inventions in theoretical discourse and clinical practice, including the no-sexual relation, the discursive structures of language, the school, the cartel and the pass. Theoretical shibboleths such as the Oedipus complex are questioned, while the historical writings of Sabina Spielrein are read and interpreted anew. Chapters also engage with the psychoanalysis of children, the questions posed by the psychoses to psychoanalysis and the intersection of creativity and the arts in new and original ways.Bringing together a range of expert contributions, this text will be an illuminating resource for scholars and practitioners of psychoanalysis.

"Orthodoxy may be a lethal poison for theoretical and practical psychoanalysis, but all that is unorthodox is not for all that heretical. This book delineates the subtle game Lacan has played with these crisscross lines. Was Lacan himself an ‘heretic’? Is RSI a true ‘heresy’? What is the status of the assertion that there is no sexual relation in the Freudian field?Through very different approaches, the consistency of analytic knowledge is questioned here. How can the transmission of psychoanalysis occur within the framework of a school? How does the Oedipus complex work? What about the totemic father? The approach to these questions reflects the singularity of the Freudian School of Melbourne, its way of welcoming knowledge from abroad and building original (but not so heretical) perspectives on psychoanalysis".Guy Le Gaufey, French psychoanalyst, former member of the École freudienne de Paris, co-founder of the first French Lacanian Revue Littoral and former director of the École lacanienne de psychanalyse.

Linda Clifton is an analyst and former director of the Freudian School of Melbourne, founded in Melbourne, Australia, in 1977. Taking its direction from the writings of Freud and Lacan, the School pursues the investigation and transmission of psychoanalysis and the training of Lacanian analysts.