International Conference: The Future of Psychoanalytic Literary and Cultural Criticism

Sign of the Times? The Future of Psychoanalytic Literary and Cultural Criticism in Changing Paradigms.

International conference: Leuven, 31 January 2008 – 2 February 2008.


Psychoanalysis has always entertained a vivid dialogue with other disciplines and sciences, witness the work of its founder Freud himself, as well as some of his most brilliant followers, such as J. Lacan and W. Bion. Throughout the 20th century, psychoanalytic discourse underwent the influences from psychiatry, neurology, philosophy, linguistics and topology, but it also contributed to the development of these fields. Despite various internal theoretical splits, feuds and schools, psychoanalysis as a practice and as a paradigm has developed consistency, depth and stability. Thus, it was able not just to survive many attacks from the outside (psychiatry, empirical psychology, feminism…), but also to deeply influence and shape 20th-century thought. Moreover, the language of psychoanalysis has become part of general cultural discourse, through popular artistic forms and movements (modernism, surrealism, Hollywood-film…). Cultural developments such as modernism in literature and art and cinema also thoroughly influenced many psychoanalysts and their writing practice. Finally, psychoanalysis became for many a part of “theory”, a larger discourse stretching over various disciplines of the humanities.

If the unconscious is structured as a language, how do changes in a culture that has been to a certain extent influenced and shaped by psychoanalysis in turn affect both the structure and content of language and the unconscious? Has psychoanalysis been eager (or forced) to adapt to these developments by exploring new territory and or has it responded by striving for conceptual purity and rigor? On the other hand, psychoanalysis perpetually seems to balance on the verge of occultation. To what extent has psychoanalysis has incorporated, or been incorporated by, contemporary developments and trends in culture and cultural theory? Can we find traces of these adaptations and resistances in the language of psychoanalysis?

Confirmed speakers: Mary Jacobus, Charles Shepherdson, Jean-Michel Rabaté, Nicholas Royle
Abstracts: 500 words by July 30th, 2007.
Contact: anneleen.masschelein@arts.kuleuven.be