“Desire, Guilt, and the Ethics of Speech: A Close Reading of Lacan” with Adam Schneider PhD

This course is designed to be beginner friendly to those who do not have much familiarity with Lacan.

Jacques Lacan (1901-81) was a French psychoanalyst who pioneered what he described as a “return to Freud.” Lacan’s yearly seminars made extensive references to Freud’s writing and critiqued, extended, and innovated psychoanalytic theory into a new school of psychoanalysis.

This course offers a close reading of Lacan’s Seminar VII, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis. Lacan argued those who work psychoanalytically are “submerged in what are strictly speaking moral problems.” He argued that psychoanalysis has a unique position contrasted with other major schools of ethics. Ethics concerns the way in which people relate to the actions they take in life, and these actions are related to an overall good which they aspire to attain. For beginning analysts, Lacan aimed to provide a “skeleton,” a “vertebrate solidarity,” with which to embody their practice.

This course offers a close reading of Lacan’s seminar. Each session has assigned readings from within the Seminar, lectures which cover the primary concepts and themes, and discussion questions to facilitate participants' engagement with the material.

The course aims to make Lacan’s theoretical contributions practical by helping clinicians approach their clinical work ethically. Lacan’s teaching on the origins of guilt, unconscious desire, and the ethics of speech all help clinicians orient themselves to the most effective position in relationship to their patients and provides a universal goal for psychoanalytic treatment.

Instructor: Adam Schneider PhD is a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) in private practice in the Seattle area. His clinical experiences include residential, wraparound outpatient, intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization, and psychiatric inpatient settings. His research interests include Lacanian psychoanalysis, treating psychosis in inpatient settings, and the intersection of psychoanalysis and Catholicism.

In registering for this program, I attest that I will respect the confidentiality (in accordance with HIPAA regulations) of any clinical material that is discussed during this program, that I am the only person viewing the program that I am registering for, and that I will not record this program.