3rd Annual Conference of the Centre for Lacanian Analysis
11 -14 February 2010
Auckland University of Technology
SEXUAL IDENTITY
As opposed to what Freud maintains, it is man – I mean he who happens to be male without knowing what to do with it – who approaches woman, or who can believe that he approaches her … But what he approaches is the cause of his desire that I have designated as object a. That is the act of love. To make love, as the very expression indicates, is poetry. There is a world between poetry and the act. The act of love is the male's polymorphous perversion, in the case of speaking being. Jacques Lacan
How is human sexual identity determined? These days we often hear that it is either a process open to subjective positions where one enacts a gender identity or one has imposed on oneself a gender identity through a matrix of social constructions. Positions such as 'transgendered' or 'inter-sexed' are added to an expanding list of gender identities which already include the nomenclatures of gay, lesbian or bisexual. These are not descriptions of sexual preferences or practises; they are rather markers of both sexual identity and sexual difference. Psychoanalysis, in contrast, is often perceived as being too deterministic and overly conservative in its findings. Freud's Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality are today regarded with antipathy or simply ignored. But, indeed, Freud's insight that human sexuality is a process beyond biological imperatives was the opening which made it possible to question the determination of human sexual identity. Lacan's formulae of sexuation established the foundations of a possible definition of a sexual identity that would not be based on semblance but would rather be determined in terms of jouissance: the all-phallic determines the position of the man, the not-all phallic determines the position of the woman. The main reference for the conference is Jacques Lacan, in particular, though not exclusively, his Seminar XX, On Feminine Sexuality: The Limits of Love and Knowledge, Encore. The conference aims to address a number of Lacan's most provocative axioms, such as "There is no sexual relation" or "The Woman does not exist," to explore other ways of thinking sexual identity.
CALL FOR PAPERS The 2010 Conference of the Centre for Lacanian Analysis aims to bring together those broadly engaged in approaches to psychoanalysis that are clinical and critical, both philosophical and cultural; and those particularly engaged with the works of Jacques Lacan. The CLA is therefore seeking comprehensive proposals for papers to be presented at the 3rd annual CLA conference at AUT, Auckland, New Zealand, on 11th – 14th of February 2010. Proposals should be between 700 -1000 words and outline the structure and content of proposed papers. The general theme is Sexual Identity. The deadline for the submission of proposals to the review committee is Monday 31 August 2009. Proposals can be emailed to Gustavo Restivo at gustavo@xtra.co.nz or Lucille Holmes at la.holmes@auckland.ac.nz . Please use a plain 12pt font. Receipt of all proposals will be acknowledged. If no reply has been received within one week of electronic posting, please contact the CLA as above or resend. Acceptance of your paper will be confirmed by 31st October 2009. Papers are to be no more than 30 minutes spoken length, and will be followed by 20 minutes for questions and discussion. When the acceptance of the paper is confirmed, each presenter is asked to provide a 250 word abstract for inclusion in the conference programme. These abstracts can be emailed to Mark Jackson at mark.jackson@aut.ac.nz by 15th December 2009. If confirmation is required earlier than 31st October so that applications for funding to attend the conference can be processed, please indicate with your proposal the deadline by which you require your paper's acceptance to be confirmed. We look forward to seeing you at the conference.
CONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Sonia Alberti: Professor of the Institute for Psychology at the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). Researcher of the National Council for Research, in Brazil. Doctor in Psychology (Université de Paris X-Nanterre, 1989) and Post-doctor (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro-UFRJ). Coordinates the Residence in Psychology at the University Hospital Pedro Ernesto (HUPE) and supervises residents in its Nucleo de Estudos da Saude do Adolescente (Section for Adolescent`s Health, of the HUPE). Psychoanalyst, AME of the Psychoanalytic School of the Lacanian Field and, at the present time, Representant of Brazil in the College of Representants of the International of the Forums (CRIF). Author of books and articles.
Dany Nobus, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Psychoanalysis, and Head of the School of Social Sciences at Brunel University, London, where he is also the Convenor of the MA Programme in Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Society. He is Visiting Professor of Psychiatry at Creighton University Medical School in Omaha NE, and Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. He is the author, most recently, of Knowing Nothing, Staying Stupid: Elements for a Psychoanalytic Epistemology (Routledge, 2005), and has contributed numerous papers on the history, theory and practice of psychoanalysis to academic and professional journals.
