Seminar IX Identification (1961-1962) : from 15th November 1961 : Jacques Lacan

Content

English translations

Commentaries

Seminar IX : Dates of Sessions & References

Citations

English translations :

– translated by Cormac Gallagher. Published by www.LacaninIreland.com /Translations/Seminars

– Translated by Ben Hooston

Translated from transcriptions of the original tapes and Michel Roussan’s text, by Ben Hooson, December 2022. Available at www.LacanianWorksExchange.net /lacan

From Ben Hooson’s Introduction:

This is a new English translation of the ninth year of Jacques Lacan’s seminar (Seminar IX), held weekly at the Sainte Anne psychiatric hospital in Paris during term time in 1961-1962 and devoted to the theme of identification as relevant to Freudian psychoanalysis.

The French version of Seminar IX in the series of Lacan seminars under the editorship of Jacques-Alain Miller still awaits publication (as of December 2022). However, Seminar IX was already translated into English by Cormac Gallagher in a version that is available online (Gallagher’s English versions of Seminar IX and other Lacan seminars are described as “from unpublished French manuscripts”).[1] I took the earlier translation as a template for my own version, so it is for the reader to decide whether the latter is, in fact, a new translation or a revision.

The French sources, which I used, were, firstly, the original typescripts, prepared from on- the-spot stenographs of Lacan’s Wednesday seminars and available on the site of the École lacanienne, and, secondly, a “version critique” of Seminar IX, prepared by Michel Roussan. The latter is not available online, but Alain Lecat, manager and editor at Staferla, kindly put me in touch with Michel Roussan, from whom I purchased a hard copy. As Lecat explained, Staferla, which offers excellent, free-access online versions of all Lacan’s seminars, mainly followed Roussan’s text in preparing the Staferla version of Seminar IX, while omitting most of Roussan’s annotations and notes. (It should however, be understood that Staferla versions of other Lacan seminars are the work of the Staferla team itself.).

The task of translation would have been impossible without the Roussan version for three reasons (ordered from least to greatest): the copies of the typescript provided on the École lacanienne website are sometimes as hard to read as a newspaper that has been soaked in a bucket; the typescripts on the website are missing pages and even whole weeks of the seminar; and (crucially) the text of the typescripts is clearly not an accurate reproduction of what Lacan said.

It appears that Lacan rarely checked the typescripts for accuracy after the weekly seminar (in 1961-62 and in other years). An official copy of the text, which was stored at the main office of the École freudienne on rue Claude Bernard (the “Rue CB” version), corrects only the most flagrant errors (“feverfoune” for “Verwerfung”, “très socratique” for “Pré-socratique”, “une survie” for “1/φ”, etc.). We must sympathise with the stenographer and typist who had to struggle with sentences of Proustian length and unclear punctuation, extended parentheses (sometimes never closed), false starts, an abundance of foreign words and difficulty of the subject matter.

In preparing his critical version, Roussan took account of all available records of Seminar IX: the original typescript, the Rue CB version, the notes of several listeners (sometimes amounting to draft transcripts) and a second typescript, which drew together the sources just mentioned and which I have not been able to obtain. He uses margin notes to cite alternative versions of words, phrases and sentences. I have reproduced a sample page of the original typescript followed by the same page in Roussan’s version (after this Preface). Roussan’s appendices include a commentary on the excursions into topology, which dominate the seminars from March to June 1962.

[1] On the “about” page of Lacan in Ireland. The translation is marked “amended by MCL”. Acknowledgements on the same page suggest that MCL is Mary Cheyrou-Lagreze.

Commentaries:

Drive and Fantasy : 1994 : Pierre Skriabine : See this site, www.LacanianWorks.org (LW.org) /5 Other Authors A-Z or https://web.archive.org/web/20220709012522/https://lacanianworks.net/?p=298

The Ordinary Topology of Jacques Lacan : 1986 : Jeanne Lafont : See LW.org/5 Other Authors A-Z or https://web.archive.org/web/20220709012522/https://lacanianworks.net/?p=313

Seminar IX : Dates of Sessions & References

1961

1 : Wednesday 15^th November 1961

2 : p11 : Wednesday 22^nd November 1961

3 : p19 : Wednesday 29^th November 1961

4 : p28 : Wednesday 6^th December 1961

5 : p38 : Wednesday 13^thDecember 1961

6 : p46 : Wednesday 20^th December 1961

1962

7 : p58 : Wednesday 10^th January 1962

8 : p71 : Wednesday 17^th January 1962

9 : p83 : Wednesday 24^th January 1962

10 : p93 : Wednesday 21^st February 1962

11 : p102 : Wednesday 28^th February 1962

12 : p112 : Wednesday 7^th March 1962

Discussion of the torus

13 : p126 : Wednesday 14^th March 1962

14 : p127 : Wednesday 21^st March 1962

15 : p148 : Wednesday 28^th March 1962

16 : p159 : Wednesday 4^th April 1962

17 : p168 : Wednesday 11^th April 1962

18 : p191 : Wednesday 2^nd May 1962

19 : p109 : Wednesday 9^th May 1962

The Ordinary Topology of Jacques Lacan : 1986 : Jeanne Lafont : See LW.org/January 1986 or https://web.archive.org/web/20220709012522/https://lacanianworks.net/?p=313

20 : p219 : Wednesday 16^th May 1962

The Ordinary Topology of Jacques Lacan : 198 6: Jeanne Lafont : See LW.org/1 A Lacanian Clinic (Topology) or https://web.archive.org/web/20220709012522/https://lacanianworks.net/?p=313

21 : p228 : Wednesday 23^rd May 1962

The Ordinary Topology of Jacques Lacan : 1986 : Jeanne Lafont : See LW.org/5 Other Authors A-Z or https://web.archive.org/web/20220709012522/https://lacanianworks.net/?p=313

22 : p239 : Wednesday 30^th May 1962

23 : p252 : Wednesday 6^th June 1962

The Ordinary Topology of Jacques Lacan : 1986 : Jeanne Lafont : See LW.org/January 1986 or https://web.archive.org/web/20220709012522/https://lacanianworks.net/?p=313

24 : p272 : Wednesday 13^th June 1962

The Ordinary Topology of Jacques Lacan : 1986 : Jeanne Lafont : See LW.org/1 A Lacanian Clinic (Topology) or https://web.archive.org/web/20220709012522/https://lacanianworks.net/?p=313

25 : p288 : Wednesday 20^th June 1962

26 : p300 : Wednesday 27^th June 1962

The Ordinary Topology of Jacques Lacan : 1986 : Jeanne Lafont : See LW.org/5 Other Authors A-Z or https://web.archive.org/web/20220709012522/https://lacanianworks.net/?p=313

Citations

Many of these texts are available from www.LacanianWorksExchange.net /authors a-z or /authors by date and this site, www.LacanianWorks.org (LW.org) should be checked for up to date notes. The links for texts on LW.net are given, though the posts have remained frozen since December 2022, when www.LacanianWorks.net was hacked.

Seminar IX : 1961-1962: begins 15th November 1961:

Speaking through One’s Symptom, Speaking through One’s Body : 7th July 2012 (Lausanne) & 23rd November 2013 (Buenos Aires) : Éric Laurent : See LW.org/5 Other Authors A-Z (Laurent) or https://web.archive.org/web/20201029215656/http:/www.lacanianworks.net/?p=12243

Drive and Fantasy : 1994 : Pierre Skriabine : See LW.org/5 Other Authors A-Z (Skriabine) or https://web.archive.org/web/20201029215656/http:/www.lacanianworks.net/?p=298

The Ordinary Topology of Jacques Lacan: 1986: Jeanne Lafont : See LW.org (Lafont) or https://web.archive.org/web/20220709012522/https://lacanianworks.net/?p=313

Seminar IX: Identification: 1961-1962: begins November 15th 1961: Jacques Lacan : this post, LW.org

Seminar IX : 6th December 1961

Clinic and Topology : 1993 : Pierre Skriabine : See LW.org (Skriabine) or https://web.archive.org/web/20201029215656/http:/www.lacanianworks.net/?p=6444

1962

Seminar IX : 9th May 1962

The Ordinary Topology of Jacques Lacan: 1986: Jeanne Lafont : See LW.org/Lafont or https://web.archive.org/web/20220709012522/https://lacanianworks.net/?p=313

Seminar IX : 16th May 1962

The Unconscious and the Body Event : the full interview : July 2015 : Éric Laurent : See LW.org/Laurent or https://web.archive.org/web/20201029215656/http:/www.lacanianworks.net/?p=12023