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Television: A Challenge to the Psychoanalytic Establishment
Uses essays and an interview to document the theories of Lacan that resulted in his expulsion from the International Psychoanalytic Association
135 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1974
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About the author
Jacques Lacan
181 books1,227 followersJacques-Marie-Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and doctor, who made prominent contributions to the psychoanalytic movement. His yearly seminars, conducted in Paris from 1953 until his death in 1981, were a major influence in the French intellectual milieu of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly among post-structuralist thinkers.
Lacan's ideas centered on Freudian concepts such as the unconscious, the castration complex, the ego, focusing on identifications, and the centrality of language to subjectivity. His work was interdisciplinary, drawing on linguistics, philosophy, mathematics, amongst others. Although a controversial and divisive figure, Lacan is widely read in critical theory, literary studies, and twentieth-century French philosophy, as well as in the living practice of clinical psychoanalysis.
Lacan's ideas centered on Freudian concepts such as the unconscious, the castration complex, the ego, focusing on identifications, and the centrality of language to subjectivity. His work was interdisciplinary, drawing on linguistics, philosophy, mathematics, amongst others. Although a controversial and divisive figure, Lacan is widely read in critical theory, literary studies, and twentieth-century French philosophy, as well as in the living practice of clinical psychoanalysis.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 31, 2019
Queer providence, that one who wrote so sparingly but with aching concentration, whose ponderous teaching was snatched from silent oblivion thanks solely to apostolic devotees (and eventually tape recorders and mimeographs), whose only extant audiovisual performance for an audience potentially infinite but literally absent in the moment, a mediated reel standing in for the real audience whom he harangued, beguiled, placated, baffled, thrilled, seduced, and pedagogically challenged for years, would itself get lassoed into letters. Watch it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF-SE...
Also: listen. Lacan was a bad master because he was a saintly analyst. His cunningly debonair foil here attests to his refusal to meet the demand for a subject-supposed-to-know, exposing such imaginary thrones as symbolic placeholders for real excrementa.
The personal letters arrived at their destination already. Their reproduction here is of scant interest even to the ardent throng, except as instances of Lacan's knotty and gnarly ecriture. The bureaucratic documents from PIPAAD are instant and brutal soporifics. But way back in the Anglophone when I'm sure it was all quite the contretemps.
The abandoned (because abortion is wrong!) seminar on the nameS-of-the-Father is the most exemplary of Lacan's offspring reunited here. It possesses two sections with an urgency and cogency born of duress, and an onomastic third.
The Impromptu ought to have been shot (by Jacques Rivette). Lacan volleys insults, accolades, and irrelevancies until time's up. I think it's reputed to be a crucible for Lacan's politics because things are yelled in public and it's disorderly. Viva la rodomontade! It's here that Lacan famously quotes George Carlin to the effect that if you vote for a Master, you'll get one. (Also if you don't.)
The Founding Act reveals a stridently programmatic Lacan preparing his exoneration. As galvanizing as it may have been for his coterie, a few pages later (16 years) he dissolves it. From righteous fury to gnomic senescence, c'est la vie.
The response to philosophy students is a venerable B-side to Ecrits. There is neither a short nor sweet way to detail the consequences wrought by psychoanalytical experience upon philosophy's keywords, to mention only body, mind, perception, morality, and pleasure. Lacan insinuates this in his characteristically baroque style.
Viewer discretion advised.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF-SE...
Also: listen. Lacan was a bad master because he was a saintly analyst. His cunningly debonair foil here attests to his refusal to meet the demand for a subject-supposed-to-know, exposing such imaginary thrones as symbolic placeholders for real excrementa.
The personal letters arrived at their destination already. Their reproduction here is of scant interest even to the ardent throng, except as instances of Lacan's knotty and gnarly ecriture. The bureaucratic documents from PIPAAD are instant and brutal soporifics. But way back in the Anglophone when I'm sure it was all quite the contretemps.
The abandoned (because abortion is wrong!) seminar on the nameS-of-the-Father is the most exemplary of Lacan's offspring reunited here. It possesses two sections with an urgency and cogency born of duress, and an onomastic third.
The Impromptu ought to have been shot (by Jacques Rivette). Lacan volleys insults, accolades, and irrelevancies until time's up. I think it's reputed to be a crucible for Lacan's politics because things are yelled in public and it's disorderly. Viva la rodomontade! It's here that Lacan famously quotes George Carlin to the effect that if you vote for a Master, you'll get one. (Also if you don't.)
The Founding Act reveals a stridently programmatic Lacan preparing his exoneration. As galvanizing as it may have been for his coterie, a few pages later (16 years) he dissolves it. From righteous fury to gnomic senescence, c'est la vie.
The response to philosophy students is a venerable B-side to Ecrits. There is neither a short nor sweet way to detail the consequences wrought by psychoanalytical experience upon philosophy's keywords, to mention only body, mind, perception, morality, and pleasure. Lacan insinuates this in his characteristically baroque style.
Viewer discretion advised.
December 8, 2018
The text included in here called "Television" is not, in fact, called that at all - its official title is "Psychoanalysis," a transcript of a televised discussion between Jacques Lacan and Jacques-Alain Miller on that topic, directed by Benoît Jacquot. For some reason, though, the name "Television" has stuck, and so the medium, it seems, has become the message.
As well as "Television"/"Psychoanalysis," this book gathers together a number of other texts. There is a lengthy preface by Miller, for instance, presented in the form of an imaginary dialogue between himself and a female lover who is angry and frustrated by the impenetrability of Lacan's discourse. Miller uses this pretext to explain Lacan's ideas to her in a flirtatious manner. The result of this experiment is mixed: Miller does provide some useful commentary on Lacan's work, provided that one already has some understanding of it, but the tone of the exercise overall seems rather sexist and condescending.
The second part of the book, which the editor Joan Copjec labels "A Challenge to the Psychoanalytic Establishment," is a collection of important documents relating to moments of politics crisis in the course of Lacan's career. After an introduction by Copjec, these documents include: a letter from Lacan to his former analyst Rudolf Loewenstein regarding his effective resignation from the International Psychoanalytic Association (1953), a letter from Lacan to IPA president Heinz Hartmann on the same topic (1953), the minutes of the IPA meeting about Lacan's expulsion (1953), a letter from Lacan to D.W. Winnicott (1960), the minutes from IPA meeting about the formation of the SFP that effectively "excommunicated" Lacan (1963), the single surviving seminar on the names-of-the-father that Lacan abandoned after learning about his excommunication (1963), the founding statement of the new École Freudienne de Paris (EFP) under Lacan's direction (1964), a lecture by Lacan on the object of psychoanalysis (1966), a letter by Lacan to the Le Monde newspaper about why he was no longer presenting his seminar at the École Normale Supérieure (1969), the infamous "Impromptu at Vincennes" in which Lacan attempted a dialogue with a group of revolutionary students (1969), the letter dissolving the EFP (1980), and a follow-up letter on the topic of "The Other is Missing" (1980).
For those not familiar with the trajectory of Lacan's career, these documents will seem random and unimportant: for such readers, I would recommend reading the abandoned seminar on the names-of-the-father (also available in a little volume titled On the Names of the Father) and the "Impromptu at Vincennes" (which is also included as an appendix to Seminar XVII). For those who are familiar with Lacan's career, these texts are a fascinating glimpse into the mechanics of what was going on behind the scenes.
Television is an odd book, simply for the heterogeneity of its contents, apart from anything else. It certainly is not a good place for those who are starting out with Lacan, but for experienced and knowledgeable readers of his work, it is a valuable collection of documents, the worth of which only becomes clear with sufficient context.
As well as "Television"/"Psychoanalysis," this book gathers together a number of other texts. There is a lengthy preface by Miller, for instance, presented in the form of an imaginary dialogue between himself and a female lover who is angry and frustrated by the impenetrability of Lacan's discourse. Miller uses this pretext to explain Lacan's ideas to her in a flirtatious manner. The result of this experiment is mixed: Miller does provide some useful commentary on Lacan's work, provided that one already has some understanding of it, but the tone of the exercise overall seems rather sexist and condescending.
The second part of the book, which the editor Joan Copjec labels "A Challenge to the Psychoanalytic Establishment," is a collection of important documents relating to moments of politics crisis in the course of Lacan's career. After an introduction by Copjec, these documents include: a letter from Lacan to his former analyst Rudolf Loewenstein regarding his effective resignation from the International Psychoanalytic Association (1953), a letter from Lacan to IPA president Heinz Hartmann on the same topic (1953), the minutes of the IPA meeting about Lacan's expulsion (1953), a letter from Lacan to D.W. Winnicott (1960), the minutes from IPA meeting about the formation of the SFP that effectively "excommunicated" Lacan (1963), the single surviving seminar on the names-of-the-father that Lacan abandoned after learning about his excommunication (1963), the founding statement of the new École Freudienne de Paris (EFP) under Lacan's direction (1964), a lecture by Lacan on the object of psychoanalysis (1966), a letter by Lacan to the Le Monde newspaper about why he was no longer presenting his seminar at the École Normale Supérieure (1969), the infamous "Impromptu at Vincennes" in which Lacan attempted a dialogue with a group of revolutionary students (1969), the letter dissolving the EFP (1980), and a follow-up letter on the topic of "The Other is Missing" (1980).
For those not familiar with the trajectory of Lacan's career, these documents will seem random and unimportant: for such readers, I would recommend reading the abandoned seminar on the names-of-the-father (also available in a little volume titled On the Names of the Father) and the "Impromptu at Vincennes" (which is also included as an appendix to Seminar XVII). For those who are familiar with Lacan's career, these texts are a fascinating glimpse into the mechanics of what was going on behind the scenes.
Television is an odd book, simply for the heterogeneity of its contents, apart from anything else. It certainly is not a good place for those who are starting out with Lacan, but for experienced and knowledgeable readers of his work, it is a valuable collection of documents, the worth of which only becomes clear with sufficient context.
March 23, 2019
Lacan'a (ve elbette Ferdinand de Saussure'e göre) bilinç-dışınınkoşulu dildir. Bilinç-dışı dediğimiz mefhum. dilde var olur, analitik birvarsayımdır. Düşünen bilincin beden-ruh ilişkisi bir var-oluş ilişkisidir.
Hepimizin bilincinde biriken gerçeklik, toplam gerçekliğimiz gerçekten daha fazladır bir bakıma. Ancak dil ile ilgili yapı vardır. "Cinsel ilişki yoktur," derken Lacan, onun olmadığı ama hepimizin bilincinde onun bir temsilinin olduğundan bahsetmektedir.
Anlam dediğimiz şey, imgeler ya da dilin koşulladığı şeylerdir. Bir öznesiz, efendisiz bilginin varlığından bahseder Lacan ama bu kısımdan pekbir şey anlayamadım:))) Bu kendi kendine çalışan, işleyen bir bilgidir. Kendi kendini üreten bir bilgi...
Ve tabi, insanın bir toplumsal, sınıfsal bir bilinç-dışı vardır. Burada efendisiz bir tahakküm ağı, emanet roller, ve insana yazgısını biçen bir bilinç-dışı vardır.
Hepimizin bilincinde biriken gerçeklik, toplam gerçekliğimiz gerçekten daha fazladır bir bakıma. Ancak dil ile ilgili yapı vardır. "Cinsel ilişki yoktur," derken Lacan, onun olmadığı ama hepimizin bilincinde onun bir temsilinin olduğundan bahsetmektedir.
Anlam dediğimiz şey, imgeler ya da dilin koşulladığı şeylerdir. Bir öznesiz, efendisiz bilginin varlığından bahseder Lacan ama bu kısımdan pekbir şey anlayamadım:))) Bu kendi kendine çalışan, işleyen bir bilgidir. Kendi kendini üreten bir bilgi...
Ve tabi, insanın bir toplumsal, sınıfsal bir bilinç-dışı vardır. Burada efendisiz bir tahakküm ağı, emanet roller, ve insana yazgısını biçen bir bilinç-dışı vardır.
February 15, 2021
Psikolojiden çok felsefe metni olarak (ve ön hazırlığı) okunmalı sanırım. Sayesinde tanıtlamak, postulat gibi birçok kelime öğrendim, yine de kitabın tamamını anlamama katkı sağladığını söylemem; divan şiiri okur gibi anladığım kısımlardan keyif alıp anlamadıklarımı uzaktan seyre daldım. Dikkatli ve çözümlemeler yapılarak okunması gereken bir kitap.
February 5, 2021
Zor bir metin…
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December 30, 2016ehhh.. It was a bad bad bad Idea to start reading Lacan with this.
September 21, 2022
This text almost made me cry... (or Écrits, est cri)
I think that there is double sens in that statement. One the one hand, people say something makes them cry because they do not understand it. I think Lacan wants to make clear the non-sens of the parlêtre. He's a materialist in the fact that anxiety always has an object... the agalma, the objet a; and in that sense all that is left is structure.
And then the text made me cry... because I almost feel like Lacan by his dis-solution through the dis-solving, is a kind of death. He obviously died even before I was born, but it feels like the dis-solving is a kind of death, but in that sense, isn't the death drive the very objet a in which we are considering.
I think that there is double sens in that statement. One the one hand, people say something makes them cry because they do not understand it. I think Lacan wants to make clear the non-sens of the parlêtre. He's a materialist in the fact that anxiety always has an object... the agalma, the objet a; and in that sense all that is left is structure.
And then the text made me cry... because I almost feel like Lacan by his dis-solution through the dis-solving, is a kind of death. He obviously died even before I was born, but it feels like the dis-solving is a kind of death, but in that sense, isn't the death drive the very objet a in which we are considering.
December 7, 2024
Read this slowly over the past few months as part of an amends to myself for blowing it off in college… Once I realized that it was much more than just the “Television” discourse, I kept reading because it was fascinating. I definitely have a better view of Lacan’s career. I think I have a decent view of his teaching, which seems to be strict Freudian. I would recommend this volume to anyone interested in Lacan. I may also seek out his work on “Feminine Sexuality,” as well. Because I am confused about what he says that “women do not exist.” It seems sexist and an inevitable point of departure for many from Freud.
February 16, 2017
feylesof'un hayal ettiği gibi, insan ruhuyla düşünmez. hayat tamamıyla bir olumlama eseri değil. gel böyle yaşayalım demek de başlı başına hüzün dolu denilebilir, bizler yüce düşünceli insanlarız, adeta bir feylesof gibi yaşamalıyız denilebilir. üzüntüyü depresyon mu sandın sen. erkek yanılmakla bir kadına rastlar.
July 5, 2020
Television is really a metaphor which didn’t really take. It was actually about... seemed in the middle of the Deleuze and Guattari vs Lyotard confrontation. There was also a reference to Newton’s commentary on Daniel.
November 30, 2020
Bu metinde Lacan, psikanalizin birçok temel kavramı ve meselesine dair kuramlarını toparlayarak sunar.
September 20, 2021
Doktor Lacan’ın 60’larda televizyona çıktığı ve kendi psikanaliz kuramını açıkladığı seminerimsi programın metni. Lacanyen psikanalizin kısa ama kesinlikle öz olmayan bir özeti denilebilir.
to-keep-reference
October 18, 2016¿Debemos, entonces, oponernos a WikiLeaks apelando a la memorable afirmación con que Jacques Lacan abre «Television»: «Siempre digo la verdad. No toda la verdad, porque no hay manera de contarla. Contarla toda es materialmente imposible: las palabras fracasan»? (Pág.7). Semejante conclusión sería profundamente errónea. Es decisivo no modelar el debate en semejantes términos abstractos, en términos de la relación entre lo dicho y lo no dicho, de la necesidad de no decir todo: hay momentos –momentos de crisis dentro del discurso hegemónico– en que hay que asumir el riesgo y provocar la desintegración de las apariencias.
Viviendo en el Final de los Tiempos Pág.420
Viviendo en el Final de los Tiempos Pág.420
July 28, 2010
Ah Lacan. A delightful and innovative thinker who remains so inscrutable not because his ideas are super deep or radical, but because he was too much of an elitist asshole to express them as simple as they are.
All in all I found this a nice summary of Lacanese, especially the parts written by J.A. Miller. It did well to explain his take on semiotics, the language of the unconsciousness and a few other Lacanisms like name-of-the-father. Not all his theory is present.
I deduct marks from the book for including a lot of pointless letters written by Lacan. A lot of irrelevant business matters that are outdated and irrelevant.
June 10, 2010
Television was more instructive to me on the ways of Lacan than Seminar XVII, which (shhhh, don’t tell) I have tried and failed to read for at least the past calendar year.
Television was not, as I had hoped, a Lacanian analyses of television as a medium, rather, it is a transcript of a televised series of talks given by Lacan, followed by a collection of letters and treatises that depict the split and subsequent fallout of a psychoanalytic school in Paris around mid-century.
Television was not, as I had hoped, a Lacanian analyses of television as a medium, rather, it is a transcript of a televised series of talks given by Lacan, followed by a collection of letters and treatises that depict the split and subsequent fallout of a psychoanalytic school in Paris around mid-century.
July 2, 2007
Ugh. Really did NOT see what all the fuss was about. My male professor had a serious man crush on him, and it was annoying. Gave me a headache, but fortunately a good grade on a paper- although half the time I had no idea what I was writing about.
August 17, 2012
Jacques is so arrogant! I mean, yes, he has one or two good points, but the theories that he deffends aren't even his! They're all Freud's! Man, you can't be so show off with theories that even are yours!
Anyway, it helped me with college, so, I'll give him a chance any other time again...
Anyway, it helped me with college, so, I'll give him a chance any other time again...
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September 23, 2017what a self-bloated genius..
November 18, 2017
اين كتاب رو وقتى كه تسلط كافى به مباحث اصلى لكانى داريد بايد بخونيد البته كتاب نيست بلكه مصاحبه اي كه با لكان انجام گرفته تبديل به كتاب شده
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