Caravaggio, Sacrificio di Isacco, 1594-1596

Workshop

Freud and Lacan on Religion  

Jean-Pierre Cléro

Saturday, October 25, 2025 • 10:00 AM – 2:30 PM

This workshop will explore the philosophical references that ground Freud’s and Lacan’s positions on religion. Reckoning with the plurality of languages informing the reflection on religion, we will explore the impact of Feuerbach’s thinking on Freud, as well as Kierkegaard’s and Bentham’s theories on Lacan.

Suggested readings: Freud: Totem and Taboo (1912), The Future of an Illusion (1927), Moses and Monotheism (1939). Lacan: The Triumph of Religion (2005). Feuerbach, Ludwig: Thoughts on Death and Immortality (1830), The Essence of Christianity (1841). Kierkegaard, Søren: Repetition (1843), Journals (1833-45). 

Location: In-person in NYC and online via Zoom.

Fee: $70; for students with ID: $20. Registration details to follow.

—

Jean-Pierre Cléro is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Rouen, where he works with ERIAC, the Interdisciplinary Research Team on Cultural Trends [Aires Culturelles]. He has long taught in Paris at Nanterre and Sciences-Po, and remains active at the Centre Bentham. Devoted to a philosophy of fictions, the passions, the epistemology of mathematics, experience in physics, and ethics (medical and otherwise), he has focused more in the last decade on religion, largely through the work of Pascal. He is the author of many books, including, in translation, Lacan and the English Language (Agincourt).