CLINICAL STUDY DAYS 6
"The Psychoanalytic Act in the 21st Century"
New York, February 24-26, 2012
SUMMARY

On a typical New York winter weekend (a mix of rainy, windy and sunny days), the Lacanian Compass hosted its 6th Clinical Study Days on "The Psychoanalytic Act in the 21st Century." The CSD was held this past February 24-26, 2012.

A Friday evening Lecture on "The Comedy of the Sexes," held at the prestigious New School, co-sponsored by the NPAP and its Chair Program Committee, opened the three-day event. The Guest Speaker was Fabian Naparstek, Argentinean psychoanalyst from the EOL. The Lecture was attended by more than 100 people, and many questions denoted the interest in the subject.

The Clinical Study Days 6, Saturday and Sunday, held at Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus, had a full and intense program, that included 10 papers and 2 lectures given by Fabian Naparstek: "The Act as a New Link" and Pierre-Gilles Gueguen, Special Delegate of the WAP for the USA: "The School as invented by Lacan". Their presence, participation and their contribution in the discussions were invaluable.

There were 5 clinical case presentations: Franck Rollier (Antibes, France), Dinorah Otero (New York), Ellie Ragland (Columbia, Missouri), Jeff Erbe (New York) and Pam Jespersen (Omaha); 3 theoretical papers: Ed Pluth (Chico, California), Fabio Azeredo (Philadelphia) and Tom Ratekin (Washington D.C.) and 2 first person testimonies: Cyrus Saint Amand Poliakoff (New York) and Eugenia Varela (Paris, France). Each paper had a discussant (Juan Felipe Arango (Miami), Karina Tenenbaum (Miami), Alicia Arenas (Miami), Samya Seth (New York), Josefina Ayerza (New York), Maria Cristina Aguirre (New York), Ellyn Altman (New York) and Tom Svolos (Omaha), whose task was to extract the most salient points in each paper and to facilitate the discussion. The idea was to dedicate enough time to each presentation, to construct the case and to extract knowledge and transmit a teaching.

The CSD 6 was well attended by 45 people from different corners of the USA, Canada and Europe.

The exchanges between the audience and the presenters were lively and very enriching and continued during the coffee breaks and the reception held on Saturday evening.

Clinicians demonstrated originality and creativity in the direction of the treatment. Each case had an original way of dealing with the psychoanalytic act, as producer of transference, installing the subject supposed to know, reducing jouissance and inventing singular, unique interventions.

The enthusiasm for the next Clinical Study Days was evident. We already have our main theme: Demand and Desire in Psychoanalysis. The date and place will be determined soon.

Maria Cristina Aguirre
February 29, 2012
New Yor

Photos by Peter Dobey

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The New York Freud and Lacan Analytic Group
Culture and Psychoanalysis Seminar presents

'OCCUPY WALL STREET'
January 25th - 8:30PM

Barnard Hall, Room 409B
3009 Broadway (117th Street)

Presentation by Ross Shields: It Is Right to Rebel Without a Cause
(these grievances are not-all inclusive)
Discussion led by Cyrus Saint Amand Poliakoff and Robert Buck

Occupy Wall Street appears leaderless, without demands, and without a
cause—it would seem to be lacking the very traits that used to
identify social and political movements. The seminar will investigate
the extent to which the coherence of "The 99%" depends on the
incoherence—the lack—of the "one demand". Have the politics of
representation been replaced by a symptom of their failure:
occupation? How might the movement itself occupy the position of the
absent cause orienting politics towards the real?

Suggested Reading:

Chapters VII and VIII of Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego,
Sigmund Freud.
The Direction of the Treatment and Its Principles of Power. Ecrits,
Jacques Lacan
The Sinthome, A Mixture of Symptom and Fantasy, Jacques-Alain Miller
Chapter 20 of The Seminar Of Jacques Lacan: Book XI.

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The New York Freud Lacan Analytic Group gladly transmits the invitation from artist Robert Buck to visit his most recent show Kahpenakwu at CRG Gallery, NYC.

"Kahpenakwu" will be the subject of a NYFLAG "Culture and Psychoanalysis" seminar in March featuring an artist talk and presentation.

CRG | Robert Buck: Kahpenakwu
January 12 - February 18, 2011
Opening reception: Thursday, January 12, 6-8PM
For his second show at CRG Gallery, Robert Buck (who previously showed under the name Robert Beck)
exhibits sculptures, assemblages, paintings, and drawings inspired by the deserts of the American
southwest -- Kahpenakwu, or "west" in the Comanche language. In his desert sojourns, Buck finds source
material in the natural environs (lechuguilla seed pods, devil's head cactus areoles, yucca dagger leaves)
and the detritus of American consumerism (rusted sheet metal, a wooden shipping palette, soda cans
bleached by the sun). With this found desert material, the artist incorporates construction materials used in
off-the-grid structures, including cinder blocks, concrete pavers, and metal fence poles.
In Through the Night That, an American flag, dyed pitch black and affixed to a metal pole, stands in a roll of
barbed wire. The black flag is graphically reminiscent of a star spangled night sky, while the spiked, tangled
physicality of the barbed wire itself echoes desert flora, notably ocotillo plant stalks. Buck finds the tranquility
of nature at odds with the artificial and heavily enforced boundaries imposed by the border.
Contending with the "other" permeates Buck's work. In a new series of drawings in which the artist redrafts
drawings by American Indians – "savages" after his earlier drawings by "children" – the source material
includes drawings by a Kiowa Native American named Silver Horn. Buck redraws Big Horn's depictions of
torture and conflict, highlighting not only the Kiowa tribe's encounter with otherness, in the White Man, but
also the sense that identity and intent are determined historically and contextually.
Language informs much of Buck's work. In his "By Any Other Name" and "Second Hand" painting series, he
appropriates signatures from sign-in books from his previous gallery shows. The "Second Hand" series is
comprised of thrift store paintings, across which the artist enlarges a signature, and then signs it "R. Buck."
With this action, the artist questions the notion of authorship, while blurring the line between the painting's
original artist, gallery observer, and himself. Both series utilize the grid, as a kind of foundation or screen,
either as a means to transcribe a signature to a canvas, or as a digitally printed background – specifically
the "transparency" layer found in Adobe Photoshop.
The artist employs smoked Plexiglas as a stand-in for gorilla glass—the reflective surface of hand-held
Apple products, like iPhones and iPads. In the same way that the Photoshop grid is apperceived as a limit,
the murky Plexiglas functions as a marker of our times—before and, ultimately, after Apple. It also serves as
a pane through which we encounter images, like the Navajo buck, gleaned from the internet (like all of the
images in show) in El Camino Real, or the dismembered victims of a Mexican cartel in An Eye For An Eye
For An Eye For An Eye For An Eye. Alongside the natural elements, the lustrous material highlights that
what appears literally in reach and immediate may be in truth remote and transitory.
Exhibition notes written by Cyrus Saint Amand Poliakoff.
CRG GALLERY
548 W 22nd St, New York, NY 10011 | T 212-229-2766 F 212-229-2788 | www.crggallery.com
(Google Maps)
Transportation: C and E trains to 8th Ave at 23rd St / M23 Bus to 10th Ave and 23rd St

CRG | Robert Buck: Kahpenakwu January 12 - February 18, 2011 Opening reception:

Thursday, January 12, 6-8PM

For his second show at CRG Gallery, Robert Buck (who previously showed under the name Robert Beck) exhibits sculptures, assemblages, paintings, and drawings inspired by the deserts of the American southwest -- Kahpenakwu, or "west" in the Comanche language. In his desert sojourns, Buck finds source material in the natural environs (lechuguilla seed pods, devil’s head cactus areoles, yucca dagger leaves) and the detritus of American consumerism (rusted sheet metal, a wooden shipping palette, soda cans bleached by the sun). With this found desert material, the artist incorporates construction materials used in off-the-grid structures, including cinder blocks, concrete pavers, and metal fence poles. In Through the Night That, an American flag, dyed pitch black and affixed to a metal pole, stands in a roll of barbed wire. The black flag is graphically reminiscent of a star spangled night sky, while the spiked, tangled physicality of the barbed wire itself echoes desert flora, notably ocotillo plant stalks. Buck finds the tranquility of nature at odds with the artificial and heavily enforced boundaries imposed by the border. Contending with the “other” permeates Buck’s work. In a new series of drawings in which the artist redrafts drawings by American Indians – “savages” after his earlier drawings by “children” – the source material includes drawings by a Kiowa Native American named Silver Horn. Buck redraws Big Horn’s depictions of torture and conflict, highlighting not only the Kiowa tribe’s encounter with otherness, in the White Man, but also the sense that identity and intent are determined historically and contextually.  Language informs much of Buck’s work. In his “By Any Other Name” and “Second Hand” painting series, he appropriates signatures from sign-in books from his previous gallery shows. The “Second Hand” series is comprised of thrift store paintings, across which the artist enlarges a signature, and then signs it “R. Buck.” With this action, the artist questions the notion of authorship, while blurring the line between the painting’s original artist, gallery observer, and himself. Both series utilize the grid, as a kind of foundation or screen, either as a means to transcribe a signature to a canvas, or as a digitally printed background – specifically the “transparency” layer found in Adobe Photoshop. The artist employs smoked Plexiglas as a stand-in for gorilla glass—the reflective surface of hand-held Apple products, like iPhones and iPads. In the same way that the Photoshop grid is apperceived as a limit, the murky Plexiglas functions as a marker of our times—before and, ultimately, after Apple. It also serves as a pane through which we encounter images, like the Navajo buck, gleaned from the internet (like all of the images in show) in El Camino Real, or the dismembered victims of a Mexican cartel in An Eye For An Eye For An Eye For An Eye For An Eye. Alongside the natural elements, the lustrous material highlights that what appears literally in reach and immediate may be in truth remote and transitory. Exhibition notes written by Cyrus Saint Amand Poliakoff

CRG GALLERY 548 W 22nd St, New York, NY 10011 | T 212-229-2766 F 212-229-2788 | www.crggallery.com (Google Maps) Transportation: C and E trains to 8th Ave at 23rd St / M23 Bus to 10th Ave and 23rd St

THE NEW YORK FREUD LACAN ANALYTIC GROUP

NYFLAG