Subheadings
The Global Epistemic Divide and the French Particularity
Class Logic and the Subject of Science
Published
L’IA et le sujet de la science, par Éric Laurent, Lacan Quotidien n°6.
https://lacanquotidien.org/index.php/2026/01/12/lq6/
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In English
OR
At New Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis/Messager – https://app.amp-nls.org
Here http://sh1.sendinblue.com/7sgp1mejagc.html
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Available from www.LacanianWorksExchange.net /Texts by Request (Laurent)
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Circulated
From: NLS Messager,
Subject: LACAN QUOTIDIEN – 12 janvier 2026 / 12 January 2026
Date: 18 January 2026 at 16:01:34 GMT
We present here, in French and English, the text by Éric Laurent, which first appeared in French in Lacan Quotidien, a publication of the École de la Cause freudienne, on Monday, 12 January 2026.
The translator is not identified
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Note on ‘the litter/the letter’ : January 2026 : Julia Evans
Laurent’s last Sentence, This is the new reading of Joyce’s aphorism: letter=litter.
“The letter! The litter!” first appeared, in 1939, as part of James Joyce’s novel Finnegans Wake.
See Seminar on ‘The Purloined Letter’ : 26th April 1955 : Jacques Lacan. See this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19550426 or Index of Jacques Lacan’s texts)
P33 of www.Freud2Lacan.com , translated by Jeffrey Mehlman, And to return to our cops, who took the letter from the place where it was hidden, how could they have seized the letter? In what they turned between their fingers what did they hold but what did not answer to their description. “A letter, a litter“: in Joyce’s circle, they played on the homophony of the two words in English. [10] Nor does the seeming bit of refuse the police are now handling reveal its other nature for being but half torn.
I0. Cf. Our Examination Round His Factification for lncamination of Work in Progress (Shakespeare & Co., 12 rue de l’Odeon, Paris, 1929).
P17-18 of Bruce Fink’s translation, P33 of www.Freud2Lacan.com,
Now, to return to our policemen, how could they have grasped the letter when they took it from the place where it was hidden? What were they turning over with their fingers but something that did not fit the description they had been given of it? “A letter, a litter”: in Joyce’s circle, they played on the homophony of the two words in English.[11 ] The seeming scrap of waste paper [déchet] the police were handling at that moment did not reveal its other nature by being only half torn in two. A different cipher on a seal [cachet] of another colour and the distinctive mark [cachet] of a different handwriting in the superscription served as the most inviolable of hiding places [cachettes] here. And if they stopped at the reverse side of the letter, on which, as we know, the recipient’s address was written at that time, it was because the letter had for them no other side but this reverse side.
- Cf. Our Examination Round His Factification for lncamination of Work in Progress (Shakespeare & Co., 12 rue de l’Odeon, Paris, 1929).
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Éric Laurent’s text seems to be referring to ‘Science and Truth’, Écrits.
Laurent – The divide between expert centres guided by pure science and the pragmatism of practitioners is clear.
Laurent – It characterises the current state of global psychiatry: the divide between science and the psychopathological classifications accepted by practitioners came to light with the publication of the DSM-5 in 2013.
See Science and Truth (Opening session of Seminar XIII) : 1st December 1965 : Jacques Lacan, at www.LacanianWorks.org /4 Jacques Lacan (19651201)
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References with their links for this text
[1] N*, “Presentation of FondaMental,” L’École Débat, no. 16, 23 December 2025, available at lacanquotidien.org
[2] Cf. Gordon, J., “Evolving RDoC Through Theory and Computation,” 2020, available on the internet.
[3] Cf. Gordon, J., “Celebrating NIMH’s 75 years,” NIMH 30 August 2023, available on the NIMH website.
[4] Cf. list of NIMH directors on “Chronology of NIMH Directors,” NIMH, available on the NIMH website.
[5] See Voix, C., “The programme for tomorrow: data, pharma, AI,” L’École Débat, no. 9, 16 December 2025, available at lacanquotidien.org.
[6] See First, M. B., “Overview of Mental Disorders,” The MSD Manual, October 2024, available online.
[7] See publications by the DSM-6 Steering Committee on the American Psychiatric Association website (psychiatry.org).
[8] See Briffault, X., “AI and psychiatry: the future of an illusion,” interview with D. Guyonnet & C. Leduc, Studio Lacan, 15 December 2025, available on the YouTube channel Lacan Web Télévision.
[9] As Étienne Klein has strongly emphasised on multiple occasions.
Lacan Quotidien No. 6 – Monday 12 January 2026