Columbia University Auditorium, School of International Affairs: 1st December 1975 : Jacques Lacan

This Text is part of the Conferences and Conversations in North American Universities.

A first translation

Translated by Jack W. Stone

Published by University of Missouri, M. I. T. (Not now available at MIT’s web-site)

Available at www.LacanianWorksExchange.net /Lacan

A second translation:

Probably retranslated as :Columbia University, Lecture on the Symptom, Jacques Lacan : by Adrian Price with Russell Grigg, published Culture/Clinic : Issue 1 : May 2013

Published in French:

Title: 1975-12-01, Columbia University – Auditorium, School of International Affairs

Scilicet n° 6/7, 1975, p42-45

Published electronically at ‘pas tout Lacan’ https://ecole-lacanienne.net/bibliolacan/pas-tout-lacan/ /1975-12-01 : Columbia University – Auditorium, School of International Affairs

Published in French & English

Translations by i) Jack W. Stone & ii) Adrian Price with Russell Grigg

Published bilingual www.Freud2Lacan.com /Lacan (194. Lacan: Seminar at Columbia: December 01, 1975)

Introduction to Russell Grigg’s translation (June 2022)

Translated by Russell Grigg from Scilicet 6/7 (1976) p44-52, published Culture/Clinic 1 (2013) : p8-16 :

Republished in The Lacanian Review No 12, June 2022, p75-84. Introduction by Anthony Stavrianakis :

That there is a thing such as “that there are analysts,” that there is an analytic discourse, and that the thing that was once called anthröpos, human, could be transformed, in its core, in its symptom, by way of this discourse, is the object of Laan’s simultaneously dense and openly inviting lecture, for a heterogeneous and perhaps unfamiliar audience, that primed a kind of wonder, still, about the fact that we are speaking beings. To say what he might have to say and to say that the truth of his saying is not the whole story, the holes in a truth with the structure of fiction through which the symptom could be said and read.

Anthony Stavrianakis, The Lacanian Review 12, 6^th June 2022, p74

Headings

(from both translations, Jack W. Stone & Adrian Price with Russell Grigg)

The Symptom

dit-mension

Comparison of 3 translations with the original French.

From p2 of www.Freud2Lacan.com with a Julia Evans’ corrected transcription & translation

&

NOTE : The original publication in Scilicet, seems to have confused ‘dimension’ with ‘dit-mansion’. ‘mension’ has no meaning in French and does not mean ‘mention’ in English. I doubt that Jacques Lacan could tell the difference between the French and English pronunciations of ‘mansion’. The French pronunciation seems to be nearly the same for ‘mansion’ and ‘mension’. The English pronunciation of mansion is man-shun. The English translation of ‘mansion’ is large house, for example, a manor house.  Julia Evans, July 2025

Citations

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-Circulated from the EuroFederation for Psychoanalysis, www.Europsychoanalysis.eu,  Towards Pipol 12, Malaise dans la famille-Family and its discontents, Brussels – July 2025

Subject: FaMIL – NL#23 – PIPOL 12

Date: 11 July 2025 at 06:02:25 BST,

Extrait de la bibliographie-Extract from the bibliography

Laurent É ., « Le père, contingent ou nécessaire ? », Mental, n° 48, novembre 2023, p. 41.

Dans sa conférence à l’université de Columbia en 1975, il [Lacan] accentue le réel du père comme celui qui n’est pas là pour faire la loi ou pour donner du sens, mais dont la fonction est de marquer la place de la jouissance comme viable.

Internet translation

In his lecture at Columbia University in 1975, he [Lacan] emphasizes the real of the father as one who is not there to make law or give meaning, but whose function is to mark the place of jouissance as viable.

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-On the Right Use of Supervision : May 2002 : Éric Laurent, see this site  /5 Authors A-Z (Laurent or Index of Authors)

Laurent p34-35, After having focused on the pass, Lacan recognised an original dimension of what is said in supervision and he notes in 1975: “I do not know why we have called it supervision. It is a super-audition. I mean that it is very surprising, in listening to what a practitioner has told you – surprising that through what he tells you one can have a representation of the one who is in analysis […]. It is a new dimension” .[20] He recognises that there is a real in play in this experience. He does not take it as evidently acquired, but he notes it as surprising. [20.] J. Lacan, Conférences et entretiens dans des universités nord-américaines in Scilicet No 6/7, Seuil, Paris, 1976, p. 42.

P1 of Jack W. Stone’s translation [dit-mension has been changed to dit-mansion] :

I have tried to specify something about analysts that I have named analytic discourse.

Analytic discourse exists because it is the analysand who sustains it (le tient) . . . fortunately (heureusement). He has the heur (h-e-u-r), the heur, which is sometimes a bon-heur,[1 – Happiness or good luck [tr.]. ] to have met an analyst. This doesn’t always happen. Often the analyst believes the philosopher’s stone–if I can say this–of his profession consists of remaining silent. I happen to do what are called supervisions. I don’t know why they call it supervision. It’s a super-audition. I mean, it is very surprising that one might, in hearing what a practitioner has told you–surprising, that through what he says to you, you can have a representation of the one who is in analysis, the analysand. This is a new dimension. I will soon speak of this fact, the dit-mansion, which I write not at all as one usually writes it in French. The best thing for me to do is to make an effort and show you how I write it:

dit-mansion

That’s how I write it . . . dit-mansion . . . which is to say–in English, this is understood–mansion, the place where a said (dit) reposes.

(p43/p3 F2L) So the analyst, nonetheless, has some things to say. He has some things to say to his analysand, to the one who, all the same, is not there to encounter the simple silence of the analyst. What the analyst has to say is of the order of the truth.

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