If the twentieth century was Freudian, the twenty-first is already Lacanian, according to Élisabeth Roudinesco, the leading historian of psychoanalysis. To recall Lacan’s work is to remember an intellectual and literary adventure that occupies a founding place in our modernity, embracing paradox and play, transgressive desire and the rejection of norms. In her latest book Lacan: In Spite of Everything (Verso, 2014), Roudinesco looks back on the secret part of his life and work to evoke a different Lacan confronted with his excesses.
In this event, chaired by Lisa Appignanesi, Roudinesco presents this Lacan, of the margins, who heralds times that have become ours, foreseeing the rise of racism and segregation and a depressive society. Roudinesco explores the fertile and perhaps unexpected legacy of Lacan’s development of numerous forms of emancipation; for example, of the procurer of Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde, for artists and writers such as Orlan and Charlotte Roche.
The conversation and Q&A part of the event will be delivered in French and English with simultaneous interpretation. Élisabeth Roudinesco's short lecture will be delivered in French with an accompanying English translation of her presentation projected on the screen.
This event coincides with the UK launch of Roudinesco's Lacan: In Spite of Everything published by Verso. The event is followed by an opportunity to purchase books by both speakers and have them signed by the authors in the Starr Foyer from 20.00–20.30.
Élisabeth Roudinesco teaches at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She is the author of many books, including Jacques Lacan & Co. and Madness and Revolution.
Lisa Appignanesi is a prize-winning writer, novelist, broadcaster and cultural commentator. A Visiting Professor at King’s College London, she is former President of the campaigning writers association, English PEN, and Chair of London’s Freud Museum.Her award-winning Mad, Bad, and Sad:A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present was followed by the provocative All About Love: Anatomy of an Unruly Emotion. Her new book Trials of Passion: In the Name of Love and Madness (published in April 2014) again delves into the history of psychiatry, investigating the rise of the expert psychiatric witness through remarkable trials of passion.