In Spanish, the word duelo means mourning and grief, but also duel: a struggle for recognition. Indeed, the mourning process is both a challenge and an opportunity for subjects to recompose their symbolic universes, recovering the lack that can rekindle desire. Through various clinical examples, we will propose new tools for treating bereavement.

“Father” is Lacan’s name for what connects the real, the symbolic, and the imaginary, which is to say, the structure that houses the subject. We will examine its operation in psychosis and neurosis.

Freud’s theory of the “slip” (Fehlleistung) is one of the original contributions of psychoanalysis. Yet as Freud was himself the first to indicate, it is also an elucidation of immemorial customs of attending to portentous events. Through a consideration of some premodern and modern interpretations of stumbling, this presentation will explore the ways in which the Freudian theory redefines the sense of apparent accidents.

What can explain the negationism of politicians and religious leaders during the recent pandemic? What is the relation between disbelief in one's own death and belief in various saviors? We will address these questions by examining Brazil under Jair Bolsonaro's Trump-inspired government.

Through a rereading of the Oedipal configuration, we will reflect on the notion of normativity and its function in psychoanalysis. What are the theoretical consequences of Lacan's rereading of logic tradition? What are the clinical consequences of a novel reading of the notion of norm?