I’m thrilled to announce that Stephanie Swales will be joining us all the way from Dallas for a series of lectures and workshops in Germany. If you are residing in Berlin or the Ruhr District, this presents a splendid opportunity to attend these events in person. For those based outside Germany, worry not as the workshop at Ruhr University will be available via Zoom, allowing you to participate remotely.
Workshop at the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) In-Person and Online
Monday 12th of June, 1-6pm
Empathy and Harm: The Subject and the Social Bond
Using key concepts from psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, such as jouissance and his imaginary, symbolic, and real orders of experience, this talk will speak to the ways in which empathy has the potential to harm. From efforts to combat xenophobia in schools, police forces, and corporations to ethical research practices in the social sciences, empathy is often seen to play a key role in the potential success of those endeavors. This workshop will provide a rudimentary introduction to Lacanian psychoanalytic theory along with the ways it can be usefully deployed to shed light on the concept of empathy – including its various forms and the motivations behind them. No prior knowledge of Lacanian psychoanalysis is needed to participate. Participants are encouraged to discuss the role of empathy in their own work and research in the discussion section of the workshop.
Free registration: via e-mail to kkc@rub.de
Lecture at the International Psychoanalytic University (IPU) Berlin, In-Person Only
Wednesday 14th of June, 7pm
Stromstr. 1, 10555 Berlin, IPU Berlin (Hörsaal 1)
Perversion in Lacan: A Structural Diagnosis Or…?
In contemporary times where binary notions of gender and sexuality have given way to embracing fluidity, should we consider perversion, alongside neurosis and psychosis, to be a structural category of diagnosis? If not, then how should we consider the concept of perversion? Drawing from my 2012 book, Perversion: A Lacanian Psychoanalytic Approach to the Subject, I will review Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan’s central formulations about perversion. The drive, the object, castration, the law, demand, desire, and the Other will all be employed in this endeavor. In pursuing the question of whether or not perversion should be considered a separate structural diagnosis, I will focus on two cases of exhibitionism – one of which is that of “Ray” from my book on perversion.
Register here.
About Stephanie:
Stephanie Swales is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Dallas, received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Duquesne University and her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College. She is a practicing psychoanalyst and licensed clinical psychologist, providing treatment to children and adults at her office in Preston Center in Dallas.
Swales specializes in the theory and practice of Lacanian psychoanalysis and its intersections with critical psychology. She has published two books: Psychoanalysing Ambivalence with Freud and Lacan: On and Off the Couch (Routledge, 2019), co-authored with Carol Owens, and Perversion: A Lacanian Psychoanalytic Approach to the Subject (Routledge, 2012). Dr. Swales has also published numerous articles and book chapters. Her current research focuses on empathy and liminality. She is also a member of Community Assistance Research.
She is the Secretary for APA’s Division 24 (Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology), Founder of the Dallas/Fort Worth-area Lacan Study Group, Analyst, Secretary, and Faculty of the Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis, Past President of the Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology, Curriculum Committee member of the Dallas Post Graduate Program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and reviewer for numerous journals in the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis.
Leon Brenner 