The Word "Unconscious" : What Does It Mean In Freud?

LWFF Seminar Series 2025-2026

The Word "Unconscious" : What Does It Mean In Freud?

A series of seminars based on what are sometimes referred to as Freud’s metapsychological writings.

The texts include: Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning (1911); Drives and their Vicissitudes (1915); The Unconscious (1915); Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1919); The Ego and the Id (1923); The Loss of Reality in Neurosis and Psychosis (1924); and Negation (1925). As we will explore in the course of the year, with guest speakers drawn from across the Freudian Field, these texts form the fundamental basis upon which to take up the question of what the word "Unconscious", the Freudian "Unbewusste" – which in fact is not so easy to translate – means in Freud. In the course of our work together, we will take up Freud's writings in their own terms, but also in the light of later developments by Jacques Lacan and Jacques-Alain Miller.

Practical Information: Running between November and June, this series of seminars will consist of 7 sessions, each divided between a morning seminar, in which the speaker will provide a theoretical development of the day’s theme, and an afternoon seminar in which the topic in question will be illustrated with a clinical case or cases, presented by the speaker, followed by discussion.

The programme has been established under the personal direction of Jacques-Alain Miller.

Attendance is in person or via zoom.

PLEASE NOTE: Except by arrangement, local participants are expected to attend In Person.

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