Philosophy and science
Philosophy and science

A materialist Lacan?

I wonder sometimes if the current Covid-19 crisis is encouraging some Lacanians and fellow-travellers to rethink the whole question of the ontology. And I’m thinking especially of those who in the past have tended to be dismissive, or at least suspicious of, any form of ‘biologism’ or ‘essentialism’ in psychoanalysis. …

Is psychoanalysis a science?

I’ve just been re-reading Freud’s An Outline of Psycho-Analysis1 which was his last attempt to give a concise exposition of his ideas and their clinical application.  This paper was written in 1938, very near to the end of Freud’s life.  I think this in itself is significant because by this …

Money as a social relationship

I think one of the problems with examining the City and City culture is that there is a tendency to overlook the obvious (although the obvious is usually only that in hindsight).  Instead, the focus is on the insane hours, the crazy salaries and bonuses, the cut-throat, Darwinian culture.  The …

Evidence and science

It was interesting to watch Sherlock the other night, i.e. the BBC’s ‘updating’ of Conan Doyle’s famous detective stories into the twenty first century with Benedict Cumberbatch starring as the sleuth in question.  What particularly fascinated me, apart from the liberties that this ‘new’ version was taking with the plots …

Beyond the promise of the quick fix

I’ve just been reading Michael Sinclair’s book on corporate stress Fear and Self-Loathing in the City.   What’s interesting about this book is that it gives a fascinating insight into the psychology of City workers from a clinical perspective.  Sinclair discusses a range of problems including anxiety, depression, alcoholism, eating disorders, …

Does the Other exist?

One of the things that Lacan is famous (or perhaps more accurately infamous) for saying is that ‘the Other does not exist’.  Like many pronouncements attributed to Lacan, this one needs to be treated with caution.  What Lacan did say is that there is no Other of the Other, and …