Foundations of Psychoanalysis

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Földek, c.1920

Freudian vs. Aristotelean Logic — André Michels  

Saturday, May 10, 2025
10:00 AM – 1:30 PM (ET)

To determine the position of psychoanalysis in relation to modern science, it is crucial to return to the logic at stake in Freud’s invention, most clearly exposed in his writings on dreams, wit, and slips of the tongue. Lacan’s return to Freud continually examined psychoanalysis as a logical procedure undermining the principle of contradiction (or non-contradiction) expounded by Aristotle. Focusing on the signifier, the phantasm, and the Borromean knot, we will contrast psychoanalytic logic with the psychologism implicit in the social and political sciences that pervades almost all aspects of modern life.

Suggested readings: Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams, Chapter IV, “Distortion in Dreams.” Lacan: Seminars XIV, 1966-7, The Logic of the Phantasm and XV, 1967-8, The Psychoanalytic Act. Aristotle: Metaphysics, Book Gamma. Cassin B., Narcy M.: La décision du sens. Le livre Gamma de la Métaphysique d’Aristote Vrin, Paris 1998. Frege G., The Foundations of Arithmetic (1988). Lukasiewicz, J.: Du principe de contradiction chez Aristote, (Éditions de l’Éclat, Paris 2000).

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

Fee: $40; for students with ID: $15. Registration details to follow. 

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André Michels is a psychoanalyst practicing in Luxembourg and Paris, and a member of the Après-Coup faculty. He is also co-editor of the Jahrbuch für klinische Psychoanalyse, editor of Actualité de l’hystérie, and author of numerous articles on psychoanalysis. He is currently co-organizing a seminar on “The Law and Norms.”