Lacan before Lacan, or: Lacan as Avant-Garde Psychiatrist - Derek Hook lecture, London, 8 June, 2023

In 1966, in a short article entitled ‘On My Antecedents’, Lacan provided an alternative origin story for his contributions to psychoanalysis. He foregrounds there a number of conceptualizations dating from his time as a psychiatrist: paranoiac knowledge, delusion as elementary, and mental automatism. This talk introduces each of these ideas, making reference to Lacan’s PhD thesis, Salvador Dali’s conceptualizations of paranoia and delusions, and to Clerambault’s theorization of mental automatism. The talk argues that Lacan’s transition to psychoanalysis can be considered that of an avant-garde psychiatrist. It concludes by stressing that Lacan’s utilization of these ideas proved instrumental to his theorization of psychosis in Seminar III, as part of his critique of phenomenological psychiatry and as part of his prioritization of the role of signifiers in psychic life.

[@kaspercram]

Hi Derek! Quick Question: What was the name of the book(and author) you briefly mention at 36:35 about a girl's psychotic break ?? Thanks!

[@macguffin8540]

Hi Derek, I hope you don’t mind me being cheeky and using this platform to ask you an unrelated question? I am rereading Foucault, Psychology and the Analytics of Power and was interested in the ‘contrabond’ referenced to Van Zyl 2003, but I can’t find a mention of it in the paper ‘the creature on the couch…’. I would be most grateful for any pointers. Many thanks

[@derekhookonlacan]

Hey, thanks for the question… I don’t think my colleague Sue Van Zyl ever actually published that idea, she had mentioned it to me - or I heard her lecture on the topic, I forget - but I never could actually find it in print. Thanks for watching the videos!

[@mobiditch6848]

Why not read Lacan among the markers of the artistic avant garde, from dada/surrealism to or through a trajectory of conceptualism. I’m thinking that a clue could be found in the work of Marcel Duchamp where Lacan surpasses the “endgames” articulated in both Duchamp and Warhol. On a side note, umm…the audio is horrible…adding to the difficulties yet maybe in a not efficacious or supporting role.