Joan Miro, Nocturne, 1940

Foundations of Psychoanalysis

Observing the Voices — Daniel Heller-Roazen

Saturday, October 5, 2024
10:00 AM – 12:30 PM (ET)

In his dialogue On Divination, Cicero writes that the Pythagoreans cultivated the practice of “observing voices”: “not only the voices of the gods but also those of men, which they named ‘omens.’” Building on discussions at Après-Coup in 2022 and 2023, this presentation will explore the conditions in which sudden speech events have become objects of attention in ritual, literature, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis, yielding insights into omens, slips, and epiphanies.

Suggested readings : Lacan: “On a Question Prior to Any Possible Treatment of Psychosis” (1956), Écrits. Cicero: On Divination. Joyce, James: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Location: In-person in NYC and online via Zoom. 

Fee: $40; for students with ID: $15.

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Daniel Heller-Roazen is Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University. His most recent books are Absentees: On Variously Missing Persons (2021) and No One’s Ways: An Essay on Infinite Naming (2017).