The mirror manoeuvre : telling the same story twice

The emerging field of ecopsychology is marked by two theoretical concerns which can be seen as mirror images of each other. One is the concern with what humans need, psychologically, from the non-human natural world (e.g. Wolsko & Lindberg 2013). The other is what nature needs from us (e.g. Swim 2013). Ecocriticism has been exploring these questions for at least two decades, but ecocritical theory examines ways of reading texts rather than ways of writing them (Bate 2000; Buell 2001; Garrard 2012). Undertaking theoretically-informed “creative manoeuvres”, and reflecting and reporting on the results, is one way for practice-led researchers in the field of creative writing to progress the knowledge claims of our discipline. This paper describes an ecowriting practice experiment based on the premise that specific techniques of narrative fiction writing can deepen reader engagement with ecopsychology’s twin concerns, and help motivate ecological action. Exploring this premise is time-critical given the current environmental crisis (Rust & Totton 2012), and emerging evidence that contemporary modes of representing the non-human natural world fail to elicit activist responses (Crompton & Kasser 2009; Joffe 2008). In the practice experiment reported here, a unique reading experience has been constructed such that the reader encounters from two different perspectives, through two different novels, a single story of humans benefiting from non-destructive interactions with non-human nature. This paper argues that the two novels create a complex and intense relationship between reader and story which generates specific psychological effects, and ultimately demands an activist response.

Yhden äänen muotokuvia : Queer-luentoja Marguerite Yourcenarin teoksista

The present dissertation belongs to the tradition of queer theoretical and feminist literary scholarship. The study deals with the literary works of Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987), who was the first woman ever to be elected to the French Academy. The study seeks to lead an acclaimed classical French author into a dialogue with the characteristically Anglo-American queer theory and American tradition of queering Lacanian psychoanalysis. Queering the psychoanalytic notions of homosexuality and the categories of perversion and pervert will be elaborated in the present study. The main corpus of the scrutiny consists of five pieces of fiction written in French by Yourcenar. The first person narration and especially récit genre maintain a narrative strategy that the study explores with reference to the representations of non-normative genders and sexualities. Analyzing various radically queer aspects of Yourcenar's texts, the study focuses on the topical questions of masculinity in men, women, and texts. The study also discusses the representations of sexual desire between men, and the various constructions of male homosexuality in Yourcenar's fiction. The present study addresses Yourcenar's fiction from the points of view of female masculinity and textual female masculinity. The investigation finds its study questions and methodology in the area of queer studies, especially queer theoretical literary scholarship and the queer history and historiography of sexuality. That is why the study approaches Yourcenar's fiction in the context of historical and literary representations of male homosexual love and desire. The articulation of the closet, or textual and discursive strategies of sexual secrecy especially concerning male homosexuality, is simultaneously constructed and deconstructed in Yourcenar's fiction, as the analysis indicates. The study analyzes the Yourcenarian queer textual strategies with reference to concepts such as the epistemology and rhetoric of the closet, and the structure of the open secret as a part of the rhetoric of queer or non-straight sexuality. The present investigation puts the queer, non-normative representations of gender and sexuality in the centre of the Yourcenarian oeuvre and studies, ascertaining the strong bond between Yourcenar's work and the history, tradition, and the modern strategies of representing male homosexuality and queerness.

Minästä toiseen : Lacanilaisen subjektin syntymä Anaïs Ninin House of Incestissä ja Hélène Cixous'n Dedans'issa

The study approaches two modern novels using the conceptual frame of Lacanian psychoanalysis, especially the Lacanian notion of subject. The novels can be described as subversive “Bildungsromans” (development novels) highly influenced by psychoanalytic thought. Anaïs Nin’s (1903—1977) “poetic novel” House of Incest (1936) is a story of sexual and artistic awakening while Hélène Cixous’s (b. 1937) first novel Dedans (1969) depicts the growth of a little girl whose father dies. Both are first novels and first person narratives. Concentrating in the narrator’s internal life the novels writings break with the realistic conventions of narrative, bringing forth the themes of anguish, alienation from the world and escape into the prison like realm of the self. The study follows roughly the Lacanian process of becoming a subject. Each chapter opens up with a quick introduction to the Lacanian concepts used in the following part that analyses the novels. The study can thus also be used as a brief introduction to Lacanian theory in finnish. The psychoanalytic narrative/story of the birth of the subject and the novels stories can be seen as mirroring each other. The method of the study is thus based on a dialogue between the theoretical concepts and the analyses. Novels are being approached as texts that break with the Cartesian notion of an autonomous subject making room for a dialectics of self and other, for a movement in which the “I” builds an identity mirroring itself with others. While both of the novels recount the birth of a character called I, they also have a first person narrator apart from the character “I”. Having constituted the self’s identity, the narrator finds from inside of the self also an other or “you” – this discovery is the final clue to the coffin of the autonomous self. From the Lacanian perspective man’s great Other is the order of language, Symbolic, which constitutes the individual, the speaking subject. Using this perspective the novels are interpreted as describing the process of becoming a subject of the Symbolic; subjected to Symbolic order. This “birth process” happens in particular in the Imaginary register, where the self’s identity is built. In the Imaginary or Mirror phase the “I” mirrors himself with different others (e.g. with his mirror image and the family members, the surrounding others) learning to see his body and his selfhood both as familiar and strange, other. In the Imaginary phase the novels’ characters are also trying to deal with the opposite realm of the Symcolic, the Real. The Lacanian Real is not the reality “before words” but a reality left over from the Symbolic, aside of it but constituted by the Symbolic, to be deducted only from within it. In the novels the Real is experienced as a womblike state where the self is immersed in the other’s body. The process of coming a subject of the Symbolic is depicted also as a process of renouncing the “dream of the womb”, which, if realized, could only mean the non-existence of the subject, i.e. death. The study concentrates on analysing the novels’ writing, where meanings are constantly changing: “I” becomes you, the father becomes a mother, inside becomes outside. This technique enables also the deconstruction of certain opposing notions in the novels. The Lacanian point of view exposes language as a constantly moving universe where the subject has no more stability than the momentary meanings language creates. The self’s identity depicted in the novels is a Lacanian fixed identity, whose growth is necessary but opposes the flux imminent to the Symbolic. The anguish experienced in the novels, in the “house of incest” or “inside”, is due to clinging on the unchanging “I”. However, the writing of the novels shows how the meaning of the “I” changes constantly and the fixity thus becomes movement. This way House of Incest and Dedans, despite their pessimistic stories, manage to create an image of a new, moving subject.

Heeding the stains: Lacan and organizational change

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to add to current discussions on the use of Lacanian psychoanalysis in organizational change. Specifically, It argues that critiques of Lacan's work must be acknowledged and incorporated into these discussions. To date, there remains a silence surrounding these critiques within organization studies.
Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents the existing studies that draw upon Lacan's work in the context of organizational change initiatives. It highlights the value of this theory. Next, it outlines critiques of Lacan's concepts of phallus and incest taboo, and show how these concepts can be exclusionary.
Findings: The paper finds that there remains little debate within organization studies around such critiques. Lacan tends to be employed in ways that risk reproducing particular, exclusionary aspects of his theory. A homophobic and patriarchal legacy persists in appropriations of his writing. It outlines alternative ways of reading Lacan, which aim to avoid such exclusions. It shows how introducing such alternatives is a difficult project, first, given the silence surrounding critiques of Lacan in the organizational change literature. Second, following Foucault, It argues that language has power: a patriarchal schema is self-reinforcing in its persistence within a particular discipline, and thus difficult to dislodge.
Research limitations/implications: Given these findings, the paper concludes that organization theorists and practitioners ought to engage with critiques of Lacan's work, when employing it in their own. The silence surrounding such legacies is dangerous. It argues that the first step in engaging with Lacan's work should be to give voice to such critiques, if his writing is to be employed in the practice and study of organizational change.
Originality/value: This paper provides a unique engagement with Lacan's work in the context of the study and practice of organizational change interventions. It presents an evaluation of well-known critiques and useful recommendations for theorists and practitioners considering a Lacanian approach to this area of management studies. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Tratamentos breves na psicanálise Lacaniana - uma revisão sistemática da literatura

RESUMO: O trabalho realiza uma revisão de literatura sobre tratamentos breves fundamentados na psicanálise lacaniana. Para atingir esta finalidade, a pesquisa parte de um corpus constituído por publicações electrónicas de livre acesso de membros das Escolas de Psicanálise filiadas à Associação Mundial de Psicanálise. Considerando o período de 2000 a 2009, identificou-se que os periódicos latino-americanos contribuíram com 96 (83,47%) trabalhos sobre o tema investigado, em um total de 115 documentos seleccionados. A literatura consultada indica que os tratamentos breves são possibilitados pela construção de um dispositivo específico, no qual são estabelecidos parâmetros como gratuidade e tempo limitado de atendimento. Verificou-se, contudo, o predomínio de intervenções individuais voltadas, principalmente, à clientela formada por adultos de grandes centros urbanos. ABSTRACT: The paper outlines the profile of the scientific production about brief treatments based on the Lacanian Psychoanalysis. In order to accomplish this, the research focuses on online journals with free full-text articles written by members of Lacanian Schools listed on the website of the World Psychoanalysis Association. The work analyses studies from 2000 to 2009. In a total of 115 selected documents, the research has identified that online journals from Latin America contributed with 96 (83,47%) works. The literature review indicates that brief treatments are made possible by a construction of a specific mechanism, in which parameters of gratuity and limited time of care are established. However, a key conclusion from this review is that individual interventions with adults from big cities are still predominant

On identity reformation and local transition: a case from Poland

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore and understand the process of successful introduction of total quality management (TQM) in Poland and the way in which it impacted on identity of Polish managers. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a combination of ethnographic research and repertory grid interviews. Findings – The process of TQM introduction and implementation is examined through the application of translation as a model incorporating cultural and socio-economical dimensions in addition to individual and organizational levels that shaped the development of TQM in Poland. It then draws on the idea of fantasy as theorized in Lacanian psychoanalysis in order to incorporate the unconscious element of translation process which is missing from Latour’s theorization and which forms an important aspect of adoption of new technology and the emergence of a new post-transition generation of managers in Poland. The paper argues that a complex combination of contextual factors, amongst them the notion of fantasy shaped the process of translation of TQM to Poland, the identity formation of Polish managers and to the emergence of a new post-transition generation of managers in Poland. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the literature on the post-command transition by illustrating this process through the fantasy of total quality management explored in a specific socio-cultural and geographical context and by combining the idea of Latour’s translation with Lacanian fantasy.

As especificidades da clínica psicanalítica com crianças na neurose e na psicose: conseqüências para a direção do tratamento

This dissertation aims to answer the question: What are the specifics of psychoanalytical clinic with children in neurosis and psychosis and its consequences for the treatment direction? It constitutes a theoretical study based on Freud, Lacan and the current productions of Lacanian psychoanalysts about the clinic with children. It presents some clinical vignettes. To answer this question, were constructed four chapters. The chapter The subject constitution treats the psychoanalysis subjectivity, based on a structure from the relationship with the Other. Key concepts of Lacanian psychoanalysis are shown, necessary to understand what becomes present in clinic with children. The second chapter, The clinic of neurosis, reveals the structure of the subject in its oedipal mooring held by the Name-of the-Father, that separates the mother-child dual relationship. The child neurosis is the effect of psyche constitution and the symptoms are an interpretation of what child picks up from parents and helps him/her on the passage through the Oedipus. The analyst is there to help him/her through this path. The next chapter is entitled The clinic of psychosis. In psychosis the non-occurrence of the Name-of-the-Father is concerned. The subject is stuck in duality with the mother, and becomes what fills the Other s gap. To protect themselves, they have to be in incessant work. The analyst will be a child s partner in daily work already carried out by him/her. The last chapter, The consequences for the treatment direction, shows that the standard analytic treatment works well to the clinic of neurosis. To psychosis it s not true. Psychoanalysts thought about a different way of psychotic children treatment: the practice held in a multiprofessional team work. The practice shared by many has been a team strategy applied to the institutional practice that aims to attenuate the invasive character of the Other, facilitating the partnership between the analyst and the child in treatment and the Other contention

A questão do estilo na psicanálise lacaniana

Lacanian psychoanalysis has won a considerable space in brazilian university: a search for Lacan in the field of subject of the CAPES Thesis Bank shows 1.032 results! However the difference in the style of knowledge production and language usage is considerable between academic psychology and lacanian theory. The difficulty in reading and understanding Lacan is something pointed out by supporters and critics alike. In addition to that, his disciples choose many times to imitate his baroque, complex style, full of neologisms, causing perplexity in many unprepared audiences. What is the origin of such an enigmatic and polemic style of expression? How it became so widespread under the sign of repetition? And which are the consequences of this style to the communication, transmission and teaching of lacanian psychoanalysis? Through these questions it is our goal to contribute to the dialogue between lacanian psychoanalysis and the academy, to provide a better understanding of the causes of this style, analyzing the consequences it has to the transmission of psychoanalysis. We chose to perform a theoretical study, using authors that have treated Lacan s style and the history of psychoanalysis from a critical point of view, like Beividas (2000), Roustang (1987, 1988) and Gellner (1988), and also those that have defended and justified its legitimacy, like Glynos e Stavrakakis (2001), Fink (1997) and Souza (1985), using as well some works by Freud and Lacan. The study of these texts has led us to three main themes: 1) the difficulty of the lacanian text; 2) Lacan, heir of Freud; 3) consequences of the lacanian style. In the first one, we enumerate many different explanations and interpretations given by commentators about the difficulty and particularity of the lacanian discourse; in the second, we show how Lacan came to occupy the place of great idealization that was before destined to Freud, what made his style something to be taken as a model, to be imitated by disciples; in the third, we explore the way in which the concepts are treated in lacanian psychoanalysis, arguing that their multiple meanings point out that the final goal is not to build a clear and coherent theory, but to try to aim directly at the subject, to catch him

De posição em posição: os giros de discurso e a questão do saber na Educação em Saúde a partir de uma experiência junto a equipes da Estratégia Saúde da Família

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A extimidade da demonstração

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

As éticas nas práticas de atenção psicológica na assistência social

This study presents different modalities of ethics - guardianship, interlocution, social action, care and finally the ethics of listening to the subject's unconscious desire - as analyzers of the care practices conducted by psychologists in the field of Social Assistance. In an institutional approach, cases found in the literature are presented, in a questioning way, which can be considered examples of the practices performed by psychologists and other workers who operate in a wide variety of healthcare establishments. It was concluded that psychologists may encounter, in the field of Freudian/Lacanian psychoanalysis, consistent theoretical-technical and ethical-political instrumentals to guide institutional performance in an effective and informed way so as to include the individual as a citizen and also as the subject of the unconscious.

E da carne se fez verbo: um estudo sobre a obra Lavoura Arcaica de Raduan Nassar (1975), a partir do filme de Luiz Fernando Carvalho (2001)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

A abordagem histórica do letramento: Ecos da memória na atualidade

The word literacy acquired a polysemy spectrum which put it away from the notion of social and historic process, at the same time that associates it to codification and decodification of writing. Concerning to this last perspective, we would have nothing to add. However, we sustain, in this paper, considering Pêcheux´s Discourse Analysis and Lacanian Psychoanalysis approaches, that there is a conception of literacy as a phenomenon which influences indirectly individuals and cultures for whom the competence of writing is not established. In this sense, the concept of literacy is larger than alphabetization. As an evidence of this proposal, we analyze a text written by a student, that demanded him to write about a context distant from his own, and, to do so, he mobilized places from the archive and from his particular memory, showing a singular knowledge of writing culture, even though his text presents interpenetration of oral an writing forms, aspect that is not allowed by those who defend an a-historical conception of literacy. We discuss that the student’s text ran away from the reduction of a merely pedagogic ideology and reflects a discursive coherence in face of the challenge that was proposed to him. By the end of this paper, we propose that the teachers should search for devices that make easier for their students to write texts in which their authorship could emerge.

Tratamentos breves na psicanálise lacaniana: uma revisão sistemática de literatura

The paper outlines the profile of the scientific production about brief treatments based on the Lacanian Psychoanalysis. In order to accomplish this, the research focuses on online journals with free full-text articles written by members of Lacanian Schools listed on the website of the World Psychoanalysis Association. The work analyses studies from 2000 to 2009. In a total of 115 selected documents, the research has identified that online journals from Latin America contributed with 96 (83,47%) works. The literature review indicates that brief treatments are made possible by a construction of a specific mechanism, in which parameters of gratuity and limited time of care are established. However, a key conclusion from this review is that individual interventions with adults from big cities are still predominant.

"Excluidos en el malestar" : reflexiones sobre el malestar en las prácticas profesionales y preprofesionales de los trabajadores sociales

Este trabajo se propone describir y analizar el malestar en las prácticas profesionales y preprofesionales de los trabajadores sociales. Estas reflexiones las hacemos en el marco Carrera de Trabajo Social de la UNCuyo pero consideramos que pueden generalizarse a similares espacios académicos y profesionales. Ofrecemos una tipificación de las figuras posibles del malestar así como de las salidas frecuentes al mismo. Proponemos un análisis del mito originario del trabajador social y los significante que comandan su práctica tomando insumos del psicoanálisis lacaniano como la teoría de los cuatro discursos, de Lacan, o la lógica del todo y la lógica del no-todo. Tratamos de objetivar los nombres de ese malestar entre alumnos, docentes y graduados, deconstruir lo mitos originarios y proponer dispositivos para pensar -renombrar- ese malestar.