Foundations of Psychoanalysis

Gego [Gertrude Goldschmidt], wire sculpture, circa 1970-71

From Unfulfilled Promise to Cause-of-Desire

Paula Hochman 

Saturday, January 16, 2027 • 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM

The verb “to be” tempts subjects to think they can attain the wholeness of Being. But the symbolic order is founded on lack, as subjects discover whenever the jouissance they do obtain falls short of the one they expected. One can subjectivize this disappointment in two ways: by neurosis, which clings to the Other’s broken promise of being; or by desire, which leads subjects to construct a singular object (what Lacan called object a) that brings them a surplus of jouissance. 

Suggested readings: Freud: “Types of Onset of Neurosis” (1912). Lacan: Seminar XVI, From an Other to the other (1968-69), sessions of November 27 and December 4, 1968. Vappereau, Jean-Michel: Étoffe: Les surfaces topologiques intrinsèques, chapter III, “Surfaces orientables, surfaces non-orientables.” Shakespeare, William: Richard III. Rimbaud, Arthur: letter to Paul Demeny, May 15, 1871.

Location: Online via Zoom. 

Fee: $40; for students with ID: $20. Registration details to follow. 

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Paula Hochman practices psychoanalysis in Buenos Aires. She is a member of Topología en Extensión and is the author of Psicoanálisis del narcisismo y el fantasma. Un método en el laberinto (Logos Kalós, Buenos Aires 2019) and El Coraje de leer y otros ensayos (TEE/L. Álvarez, 2022), which was first published in English translation, as The Courage to Read (TEE/ L. Álvarez, 2021), was later published in Italian, and will appear in Portuguese.