On December 13th, Initiative Toronto held a rich conversation with Ricardo Seldes on his argument for the 2026 WAP Congress. Prior to the event, the group in Toronto, an initiative of the New Lacanian School, sent him some questions that, in his words, put him to work, and “in the position of the analysand,” he spoke to us. The conversation was widely experienced as rigorous, generous, and deeply moving. It invites us to want to know more by registering for the WAP Congress on Apr 30-May 3, 2026.
Ricardo Seldes emphasized that the aphorism “There is no sexual rapport” should not be treated as a dogma, but as a work in progress tested in the clinic, an open question even after the Congress. Turning it into a fixed truth, a mantra, risks silencing the singularity of each subject. Ethically, this position requires from us the courage to resist the comfort of certainty and to allow the real to disturb theory, letting the clinic continually renew our understanding.
Among his many punctuations, here are five:
- Belief exists because there is No Sexual Relation; it is the price we pay to not collapse in the face of this absence.
- Voracities as defenses or distractions to the non-rapport.
- Today’s responses to the non-rapport oscillate between promises of jouissance without loss (AI, pornography) and radical isolation (hikikomori).
- Love must remain silent in analysis so that what it says about jouissance can be heard.
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Urgency in analysis arises not from excess of meaning, but from excess of real.
