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Summer Institute of Psychoanalysis

June 24, 2019

The Summer Institute of Psychoanalysis | June 24 - 27, 2019

John Evans Center
1800 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL
Northwestern University

Program and Schedule of Events

Contact: Alessia Ricciardi, a-ricciardi@northwestern.edu 


The Summer Institute of Psychoanalysis addresses the impact of psychoanalytic thought on what it does not consider to be its primary target: culture, as expressed by other branches of knowledge as well as media in the broadest sense of the word from literature, cinema, and performance arts to social media. The Institute engages a conversation between psychoanalysis understood as theory, as clinical practice, and as ways of addressing the emotional spaces that other intellectual fields and creative media open up on a personal and collective level.

Each annual session unites an international cluster of universities through a cooperative effort between the Sorbonne-Nouvelle and Northwestern University. Gatherings take place in a different location each year in late June or early July at one of these participating academic
institutions. The 2019 edition is scheduled to take place in Chicago at Northwestern University from June 24th through the 27th and is dedicated to the interrelation between psychoanalysis and philosophy. Both discourses have been understood as originating in wonder, resisting institutional practices, and running the risk of becoming impossible or untenable, especially in recent times. Both modes of reflection also have laid claim to providing strong foundations for critical thinking and political resistance. At the same time, both disciplines need to meet the challenge of defining new geographies and cultural contexts for their continuing relevance.

We must approach psychoanalysis and philosophy in their reciprocal transference by attending as a collective to a crucial set of open questions. What is the relationship between the subject and the world? What do we mean when we speak of “subjects”? What is the place of sexuality? How shall I/we live? What is more important: freedom or happiness? How shall I/we live? What is more important: freedom or happiness? How can we define truth, illusion, and belief in terms that are meaningful to the current moment?

Plenary Lectures:

Faculty-Led Workshops: