Foundations of Psychoanalysis

M.C. Escher, Möbius Strip I, 1961

One Loop, or Two? On the Topology of the Möbius Strip

Mauro Milanaccio

Saturday, November 14, 2026 • 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM

It is only with the cut that the structure is revealed. —J. Lacan, “L’etourdit”

For Lacan, the subject of the unconscious is structured like a Möbius strip: internal and external form a continuum. The Lacanian unconscious, “structured like a language,” is not, as Freud would have it, an inner domain; conscious and unconscious processes coexist on one and the same surface. For clinical practice, the longitudinal cut corresponding to this “one loop that is two” provides a topological model of psychoanalytic interpretation not as a single intervention, but rather a double movement around the subject that reveals its structure, interrupts compulsive repetition, and opens the possibility of new signification.

Suggested readings: Lacan: Seminar IX, Identification (1961-62); “L’étourdit”(1972), in Autres écrits.

Location: Online via Zoom.

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

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Mauro Milanaccio practices psychoanalysis in Trento, Italy. Clinical director there of the Jonas Association, he was a founding member of ALI di psicoanalisi (Associazione Lacaniana Italiana). At IRPA (Research Institute of Applied Psychoanalysis) he teaches topology and construction of clinical cases. Besides extensive editing and translating of works on topology, he has written, among other books and articles, Topisteria: A journey through Lacan’s topology (Mimesis 2022) and Divani (Paginaotto 2022).