Lacan Toronto

Lacan Toronto is a working-group that promotes the study and practice of Lacanian psychoanalysis. Regular group meetings are held bi-weekly on Sunday and are organized in two inter-related sessions which occur on the same day: 1) a morning Reading Group (10am-1pm EST), and 2) an afternoon guest Teaching Session (1:30-3pm EST). The meetings are hosted online using the Zoom platform.

The Reading Group (10am-1pm EST) meetings are for anyone interested in reading Jacques Lacan’s seminars, writings, and interviews, whether or not you have attended previous study groups or meetings. A participant briefly introduces the week’s selected material followed by a line-by-line recitation of the text by the group for exegesis, elaboration, and associative work. The primary text for 2024-2025 is indicated below. Meetings occur the morning of the dates listed in the Teaching Sessions calendar.

The Teaching Sessions (1:30-3pm EST) are host to a guest who presents clinical material, current research, theoretical innovations, or other novel contributions to Lacanian studies in a supportive interdisciplinary setting.

There is no registration or fee to participate in these meetings. To receive Lacan Toronto announcements along with the Zoom meeting link or for information about registered membership, please email: jehamilton@rogers.com, Judith Hamilton (Co-ordinator).

Reading Group Text

Jacques Lacan, Seminar XVI: From an Other to the other, [1968-1969] ed. Jacques-Alain Miller, trans. Bruce Fink (Hoboken, NJ: Polity Press, 2024)

Teaching Sessions

This year our guest speakers are welcomed from Australia, Ireland, Scotland, China, England, Germany, Italy, the United States, and Canada. Our contributors examine complex issues such as shame, destitution, segregation, and religion. Philosophical intersections and historical encounters are revisited by closely reading Lacan’s seminars and writings. Femininity and sexuality are addressed with nuance. Topology is reimagined by reading case studies of popular and material culture. New pathways are charted in neuropsychoanalysis as we are reminded of the legacies of colonialism. The clinical setting is returned to as a site of ethical engagement, whether in private practice or in institutions, to confront the diversity of contemporary conditions such as disability and eating disorders, among many others, in group and individual settings. And, we are gifted with commentaries on new translations among other vital contributions. For more information about the guest presenters, please click the highlighted links in the table below. For more information regarding the Lacan Toronto Education Program, please email: tejpalajji@gmail.com, Tejpal Ajji (Curator).

Lacan Toronto Teaching Sessions Calendar: 2024-2025
Date	Presenter	Title	Affiliations, Publications & Working Groups
08 September 2024	Levi R. Bryant	“The Symptom from the Symbolic to the Real”	Collin College, Larval Subjects, “The Democracy of Objects” (Author), and “Onto-Cartography” (Author)
22 September 2024	Eve Watson	“Psychoanalysing Shame”	Freud Lacan institute (FLi), Lacunae Journal, “Clinical Encounters in Sexuality” (Co-editor), and “Critical Essays on the Drive: Lacanian Theory and Practice” (Co-editor)
06 October 2024	Macario Giraldo	“Dialogues in and of the Group: Lacanian Perspectives on the Psychoanalytic Group”	The Lacanian Forum of Washington D.C. (IF-EPFCL) and “The Dialogues in and of the Group” (Author)
20 October 2024	Daniel Tutt	“Lacan and the Desire of the Left”	Emancipations with Daniel Tutt, The Lacanian Forum of Washington D.C. (IF-EPFCL), The George Washington University, and “Psychoanalysis and the Politics of the Family” (Author)
03 November 2024	Michael J. Miller	“Imaginary Ethics: A Critique of the Recognition Imperative via Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Lacan”	The State University of New York—Upstate Medical University, The Center for Philosophy, Psychology, and Psychiatry (CP3), and “Lacanian Psychotherapy” (Author)
17 November 2024	Daphne Tamarin	“The unconscious: knowledge without subject—Comments on seminar ‘From an Other to the other‘ based on Colette Soler’s seminar ‘Advents of the Real‘ (2014-2015)”	The Lacanian Forum of London (IF-EPFCL) and Colette Soler, “Towards Identity in the Psychoanalytic Encounter” (Co-translator)
01 December 2024	Alireza Taheri	“On Femininity”	Toronto Psychoanalytic Society & Institute, PersPsy Analytic (Persepolis Psychoanalytic), Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, “Hegelian-Lacanian Variations on Late Modernity” (Author), and “Philosophy After Lacan” (Co-editor)
15 December 2024	Donald Kunze	“Is There a Possibility for a New Lacanian Topology?”	boundary language, Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies in Architecture (IPSA), and Pennsylvania State University (Professor Emeritus)
05 January 2025	Samo Tomšič	“The Symbolic-Machine: Extraction, Production, Destruction”	University of Fine Arts—Dresden (Professor), Humboldt University—Berlin (Researcher), “The Capitalist Unconscious” (Author), and “The Politics of Lacanian Structuralism” (Presenter, Emancipations with Daniel Tutt)
19 January 2025	Leon S. Brenner	“The Skin as the Source of the Dermic Drive: Modes of Dermic Punctuation in the Containment of Meaning”	Lacanian Affinities Berlin (laLAB), Unconscious Berlin, “The Autistic Subject” (Author), and “Lacan Today Conference” (Presenter, Ghent University, 20-21 Sep 2024)
02 February 2025	Sergio Benvenuto	“Lacan and Game Theory”	European Journal of Psychoanalysis (Italian section), European Journal of Psychoanalysis (Sergio Benvenuto Essays and Interviews), Institute for Advanced Studies in Psychoanalysis, and “Lacan, Kris and the Psychoanalytic Legacy” (Author)
16 February 2025	Samuel McCormick	TBD	Lectures on Lacan, San Francisco State University, and “The Chattering Mind” (Author)
02 March 2025	Russell Grigg	“Jacques Lacan, First Writings: ‘Structure of the Paranoiac Psychoses’ (1931)”	Lacan Circle of Australia, Ecole de la Cause freudienne, New Lacanian School (NLS/AMP), World Association of Psychoanalysis (WAP), Deakin University (Professor Emeritus), “Lacan, Language, and Philosophy” (Author), Jacques Lacan, “First Writings” (Translator, forthcoming), and “Lacan Today Conference” (Presenter, Ghent University, 20-21 Sep 2024)
16 March 2025	Calum Neill	“On Destitution”	Lacan in Scotland, Edinburgh Napier University, “Jacques Lacan: The Basics” (Author), “Reading Lacan’s Écrits” (Co-editor, Vol. 1-4), and “Lacan Today Conference” (Presenter, Ghent University, 20-21 Sep 2024)
30 March 2025	Sanem Güvenç	“On Segregation”	Emily Carr University of Art + Design and “Lacan Today Conference” (Presenter, Ghent University, 20-21 Sep 2024)
13 April 2025	Ona Nierenberg	“Hospital-ity: On 20 Years at Bellevue, the Oldest Public Hospital in the U.S.”	Après-Coup Psychoanalytic Association: “Psychoanalysis in the Institution” (Clinical Working Group), APPI—Association for Psychoanalysis & Psychotherapy in Ireland (Overseas Member), Lacan Toronto (Honorary Member)
27 April 2025	Dany Nobus	“Pascal’s Wager and the Knowledge of Ignorance in the Endgame of Psychoanalysis”	Brunel University, British Psychoanalytic Council, Freud Museum London, Psychoanalysis and History (Journal), “Critique of Psychoanalytic Reason” (Author), “The Law of Desire” (Author), and “Lacan Today Conference” (Presenter, Ghent University, 20-21 Sep 2024)
11 May 2025	Kareen Malone	“Seminar 17: Capitalism & Clinic”	Après-Coup Psychoanalytic Association, University of West Georgia (Professor Emerita), “The Subject of Lacan” (Co-editor), and “Lacan and Addiction” (Co-editor)
25 May 2025	Will Greenshields	“Lacan’s Hypothesis on The Origin of Writing”	Zhejiang University and “Writing the Structures of the Subject” (Author)
08 June 2025	Domenico Cosenza in conversation with Penny Georgiou	“A Lacanian Reading of Anorexia: A Clinical Discussion”	Cosenza: University of Pavia, Scuola Lacaniana di Psicoanalisi del Campo Freudiano (SLP), World Association of Psychoanalysis (WAP), and Federazione Italiana Disturbi Alimentari (Italian Federation of Eating Disorders) and “A Lacanian Reading of Anorexia” (Author); Georgiou: New Lacanian School (NLS/AMP), School of the Freudian Letter (SFL), and Lacan Toronto
22 June 2025	Daniel José Gaztambide	“Decolonizing Psychoanalytic Technique”	The City University of New York—Queens College, The Frantz Fanon Lab for Decolonial Psychology (CUNY—Queens College), and “Decolonizing Psychoanalytic Technique” (Author)
06 July 2025	John Dall’Aglio	“The philosophical and scientific bases of a Lacanian neuropsychoanalysis”	Duquesne University and “A Lacanian Neuropsychoanalysis” (Author, forthcoming)
20 July 2025	Angelo Villa	“Psychoanalysis and Severe Handicap: The Hand in the Cap”	Après-Coup Psychoanalytic Association: “On Clinical Work with Children” (Reading Group with Discussion of Clinical Cases), Espace analytique, Research Institute of Applied Psychoanalysis (Milan and Ancona), Lacanian Institute (Palermo), Rosine Lafort in collaboration with Robert Lefort “Naissance de l’Autre” (Italian Translator), and “Psychoanalysis and Severe Handicap” (Author)

All meetings (usually held at the Toronto Psychoanalytic Society, 2nd floor, 40 St. Clair Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario) are now being held online.

Reading Group Meetings – online
Alternate Sundays, 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM Open to the Public
Lacan Toronto meets every two weeks on Sundays to do a sustained reading of Lacanian texts. This year we are reading Seminar VII, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, 1959-1960. Our method is to read the text aloud, passage by passage, and pause for discussion. You will be sent an invitation – announcement a few days before each meeting.

These meetings begin September 10, 2023. After each meeting, a record of the discussion at the meeting will be posted.

There is no registration requirement, nor charge for these meetings.

Teaching Sessions – online
After the Reading Group Meetings
1:30 to 3:00 PM
Open to the Public

There is no registration requirement, nor charge for these meetings.

Lacan Toronto Calendar 2023 – 2024

Date	Reading Group Sessions 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM	Teaching Sessions 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
10 September 2023	Seminar 7	Penny Georgiou, “The Signifier and the Speaking Being”
25 September 2023	Seminar 7	Dan Collins, “Tolkien, Joyce and Lacan”
8 October 2023	Seminar 7	Josh Finkelstein, “Clinical Utility of Early Romances in Obsession and Hysteria”
22 October 2023	Seminar 7	Eve Watson “The Voice and the Drive”
5 November 2023	Seminar 7	Special event honoring Mari Ruti
19 November 2023	Seminar 7	Eugénie Austin, “From Lacan’s Return to Freud to Lacan’s Skyrocket Beyond Freud”
3 December 2023	Seminar 7	Dan Collins, Lacan: The Middle Seminars 11
17 December 2023	Seminar 7	Dan Collins, Lacan: The Middle Seminars 12
7 January 2024	Seminar 7	Dan Collins, Lacan: The Middle Seminars 13
21 January 2024	Seminar 7	Dan Collins, Lacan: The Middle Seminars 14
4 February 2024	Seminar 7	Dan Collins, Lacan: The Middle Seminars 15
18 February 2024	Seminar 7	Dan Collins, Lacan: The Middle Seminars 16
3 March 2024	Seminar 7	Dan Collins, Lacan: The Middle Seminars 17
17 March 2024	Seminar 7	Dan Collins, Lacan: The Middle Seminars 18
31 March 2024	Seminar 7	Dan Collins, Lacan: The Middle Seminars 19
14 April 2024	Seminar 7	Dan Collins, Lacan: The Middle Seminars 20
28 April 2024	Seminar 7	Olga Cox-Cameron
12 May 2024	Seminar 16	Kristen Hennessy, “What Happens to Oedipus and Electra in Cases of Incest”
26 May 2024	Seminar 16	Hilda Fernandez, “Topologies of the Body”
9 June 2024	Seminar 16	Rolf Flor, “The History of the Real”
23 June 2024	Seminar 16	Jamieson Webster, “Psychoanalysis and the Question of Breathing”
7 July 2024	Seminar 16	Todd McGowan, “Surplus Enjoyment in the Capitalist Universe”
21 July 2024	Seminar 16	Kevin Murphy, “Asexuality and Freudian-Lacanian Theory”

Dan Collins’s seminar this year, Lacan: The Middle Seminars, will continue a project to study Lacan’s Seminars 12, 13, 14, and 15. These seminars have received very little scholarly attention up to the present in French or English. Last year, we explored Seminars 12 and 13. This year, we’ll continue with Seminars 14 and 15, The Logic of Fantasy and The Psychoanalytic Act. The transitional period of the middle seminars falls between two major turning points in Lacan’s work, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, discussed in Seminar 11, and the discourse theory of Seminar 17. We’ll use these seminars to look both back and forward in Lacan’s career, and we’ll explore Lacan’s trajectory during this time.

Lacan Toronto Meetings: 2024-2025

Dan Collins presents “Lacan: The Middle Seminars – XIV and XV” November, ’23 – Apr.,’24

Full Program – Lacan Toronto 2023-2024

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