Jouissance: The stuff that dreams are made of, were successfully held on New York from February 21st to 23th,2020. Gratefully we counted with the presence of Angelina Harari, President of the WAP and the remarkable testimony of the pass of Maria Josefina Sota Fuentes. We also had the fortune to have among us our WAP colleagues Eve Miller-Rose, Christian Alberti and Eloisa Prado Tellez.
We had the great opportunity to work on these matters with 61 participants that joined us from all over the country and from outside of the US as well; we had people coming from such a different places: Brazil, Belgium, France, Canada, Guatemala and Argentina; and from the US we have participants from Houston (TX), Princeton (NJ), Miami (FL), Chicago (IL), Tucson (AZ), Chico, Irvine and Felton (CA), Washington (DC), Omaha (NE), Arlington (MA), Philadelphia (PA), Pittsburgh (PA),Arlington (VA) and obviously New York (NY).
We had the opportunity to work on a diverse spectrum of clinical cases, thanks to the wonderful contribution of the presenters: “The Dream-Image” by Azeen Khan; “The Evil Bastard of Jouissance” by Neil Gorman; “Struggling with Water” by Carlos Rivas; “The Return of a Mutilated Letter” by Sara Sutton; “On Wish and Desire” by Andreas Ilg; “My Way, Your Way” by Leticia Lopez; “The Daughter of Art” by Nancy Gillespie; “Running in Circles” by Jeff Erbe; “King and the Boogieman” by Renata Texeira; “The Space of the Drift: A Case of Sleepywalking” by Samya Seth; “The Robot Kid” by Julie Fotheringham; “Ring of Fire” by Diana Cuello; “Lalangue: Some of the Stuff Dreams are Made of” by An Bulkens and “Nightmare, Jouissance, and Delusion” by Maureen Caron.
Despite of the type of knot or structure, regardless of neurosis or psychosis, one of the matters that were pointed out during this CSD13 was the ethical question of the relation of the responsibility of the dreamer and the jouissance at play in the navel of the dream. During this journey we were able to explore the two models of dreams as the paradigm of moral responsibility: dreams of anguish and dreams of self-punishment, and therefore the relationship between jouissance and the dream as Freud himself pointed out.
Having in mind that Lacan took the nightmare as the paradigm of the failure of the symbolic matrix in the face of the irruption of the Real. The unconscious as a network or net of signifiers fails to transform, process and catalyze the Real that bursts and converts a dream into a nightmare.
Taking the dream beyond of its meaning allowed us to guide our clinical discussions focus on the question of jouissance and response-ability, link that has been present from the start of the work of psychoanalysts with dreams.
We invited our participants to think about the notions of the dream and jouissance in the contemporary clinic, taking as reference the different moments of Lacan’s teaching, as well as the developments made by Jacques Alain Miller about Lacan’s later teaching. What does our practice say today about current use of the dream and its relation to jouissance within the analytic experience? And at this juncture, what status can we give to the body of this parlêtre, speaking-being, when it is taken by this symbolic fracture that is evidenced in the nightmare or in the dream of punishment when the body is being assaulted by the anguish that comes out of this mismatch?
The Lacanian Compass USA wants to thank each one of our colleagues, attendees, participants, discussants, and presenters for these notable contributions about the clinical practice that psychoanalysis offers, especially regarding the issues about Jouissance: The stuff that dreams are made of. How this is presented in the current clinic, as well as the path that allowed us to glimpse the different notions of the use of the dream and its relationship with jouissance in Jacques Lacan’s teaching and in our current practice. In this way, we are all invited to continue elaborating on what treatment psychoanalysis proposes to the symptoms of the time and how to work on that “it” that does not go through the word, highlighting that sometimes not even the dream is able to grasp it but rather through the analytic experience itself.
Lacanian Compass, USA – NLS
