Published as ‘The Ethics of Psychoanalysis’: 1959-1960: The seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book VII

Edited by Jacques-Alain Miller

Translated with notes by Dennis Porter

Tavistock/Routledge  1992

Available at www.LacanianWorksExchange.net  /texts by request  Password on request to here  

Originally published in French as:

Le Séminaire, Livre VII: L’éthique de la psychanalyse: 1959-1960: Les Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 1986

Further information:

Reading Seminar VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis’   here

Jacques Lacan   here

Missing presentations from the published text (mainly untranslated):

Presentation on the ‘Entwurf’ and the relation to reality : 2nd December 1959: Jean-Bertrand Lefèvre-Pontalis or here

Discussion during Seminar VII : Session of 3rd February 1960 between Jacques Lacan, Victor Nikolaevitch Smirnoff or Smirnov, Yvan Audourd, Jean Laplanche, & Unknown or here

Intervention on Siegfried Bernfeld’s ‘Observations on Sublimation’ : Seminar VII, 2nd March 1960 : Pierre Kaufmann or here

Intervention, during Seminar VII, on Hans Sperber’s “On the Influence of Sexual Factors on the Origin and Development of Language” (as commented on by Ernest Jones) and sublimation : 9th March 1960 (p164) : Mme Hubert or here

Commentary on Siegfried Bernfeld’s & Sergei Feitelberg’s Death Drive : Seminar VII, 27th April 1960 : Pierre Kaufmann  or here

Commentaries 

A Recap of Seminar VII by Bruno de Florence on July 5, 2014 or here

After Transgression: Ethics Under a Different Master by Theo Evison-Reeves : 1st June 2013 : Available here

Translations of the German used by Jacques Lacan in Seminar VII : 18th & 25th November + 2nd, 9th & 16th December 1959 + 10th January 1960 by Jo Rostron : 30^th April 2013 : Available here

Index with references and links to notes:

a) Front page/book cover to Seminar VII from the publisher – Footnote [i]  see below.    

Back book cover  :  Footnote [iv] below or see Reading Jacques Lacan’s Seminar VII: Ethics : Back book cover or here  

Chapter titles and sub-headings given by the editor Jacques-Alain Miller

N. B. : References are given, where available on LW.  The following three have not been assigned to the sessions where they appear:

The Project for a Scientific Psychology: 23rd & 25th September & 5th October 1895: Sigmund Freud or here

Philosophy in the (Boudoir) Bedroom: 1795: Marquis de Sade or here

The Critique of Practical Reason: 1788: Immanuel Kant or here

b)  Translator’s (Dennis Porter) note

c) Seminar VII: 18^th November 1959:

Chapter I: Outline of the seminar

Sub-headings: The attraction of transgression [ii] ; From Aristotle to Freud; The real; The three ideals.

References:

(p1 & 13) : Seminar VI: Desire and its interpretation: 1958-1959 : from 12th November 1958 : Jacques Lacan : Availability here

(p4): ‘on the polymorphously perverse character of its infantile forms, …’  Sigmund Freud’s ‘Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905) : Essay II, Infantile Sexuality: Section 4, Masturbatory Sexual Manifestations: Paragraph heading, Polymorphously Perverse Disposition

(p5): Totem and Taboo: 1912-1913 published 1913 : Sigmund Freud

(p6 & p13): Civilization and its discontents: written 1929, published 1930 : Sigmund Freud

(p7): ‘Wo es war, soll Ich werden’: Last paragraph of Lecture XXXI: Dissection of the personality: 1932 of Sigmund Freud: New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis : 1932 (Published 1933)

(p9) Some forms of emotional disturbance and their relationship to schizophrenia: 1942 : Helene Deutsch or here: Quoted as ‘the as if case’

(p10): ‘Analysis Terminable and Interminable’ : 1937c : Sigmund Freud : Availability: It almost looks as if analysis were the third of those ‘impossible’ professions in which one can be sure beforehand of achieving unsatisfying results. The other two, which have been known much longer, are education and government. Freud Or here

(p11) The Project for a Scientific Psychology: 23rd & 25th September & 5th October 1895: Sigmund Freud or here

(p14) : The Interpretation of Dreams: 1st November 1899 (published as 1900): Sigmund Freud  : Availability here

Notes:

Notes on Seminar VII: 18th November 1959 : p1-7 : 15th September 2012 Reading Group Meeting or here

Further comments on ‘perverse jouissance’: Seminar VII: session of 18th November 1959 : p5 : October 22, 2012 : or here

(p6) Tracking the use of ‘logos’ in Seminar VI and Seminar VII or here : 30^th November 2013

Notes on Seminar VII: 18th November 1959 from page 7 to 15 Reading group Meeting 6^th October 2012 or here : includes reference to Sem VI – desire & Hamlet

Further comments on ‘perverse jouissance’: Seminar VII: session of 18th November 1959  or here

INTRODUCTION TO THE THING

d) Seminar VII: 25^th November 1959:

Chapter II: Pleasure and reality

Sub-headings: The moral agency actualises the real; Inertia and rectification; Reality is precarious; Opposition and intersection of the principles.

References:

(p20): The Economic Problem of Masochism: 1924 : Sigmund Freud

(p20 & p21): Beyond the Pleasure Principle: 1920g : Sigmund Freud

(p24): The Child is father of the Man : William Wordsworth: 1802 (Quoted by Sigmund Freud in The Claims of Psychoanalysis to Scientific Interest :1913)

(p26) Letter from Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess: 31st October 1897 : Known as Letter 73 :Available here

(p27) : Seminar VI: Desire and its interpretation: 1958-1959 : from 12th November 1958 : Jacques Lacan : Availability here

(p27) The Project for a Scientific Psychology: 23rd & 25th September & 5th October 1895: Sigmund Freud : Available here)

(p27) The Interpretation of Dreams: 1st November 1899 (published as 1900): Sigmund Freud : Available here : Dream of the Dead Father

(p27) : Formulations on the two principles of mental functioning: 1911 : Sigmund Freud

(p27): Civilisation and its Discontents: 1929, published 1930 : Sigmund Freud

Notes:

Notes on p19-27 of Seminar VII: 25th November 1959: Reading Group of 27th October 2012 (Dream of Strawberries & of the Dead Father) by Julia Evans on 27^th October 2012 or here

(p22) A tangled web of “ethos” : comment on Seminar VII, The ethics of psychoanalysis, 25th November 1959 by Nicholas Stylianou on 31^st  October 2012 or here

(p22) Tracking the use of ‘logos’ in Seminar VI and Seminar VII by Julia Evans on 30^th November 2013 or here 

Notes from Seminar VII : 25th November 1959 : p27 to 34 (Diagram p34 corrected) : Read on 15th November 2012  by Julia Evans on 15^th November  2012 or here 

Seminar VII: 2^nd December 1959:

Chapter III: Rereading the ‘Entwurf’

Sub-headings: An ethics not a psychology; How reality is constituted; A topology of subjectivity

Presentation:

(p38) Presentation on the ‘Entwurf’ and the relation to reality : 2nd December 1959: Jean-Bertrand Lefèvre-Pontalis or here

References:

Letter from Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess: 19th February 1899: Known as Letter 105 or here

The Project for a Scientific Psychology: 23rd & 25th September & 5th October 1895: Sigmund Freud or here

Notes:

Seminar VII : 2nd December 1959 : An intervention by Jean-Bertrand Lefèvre-Pontalis on Sigmund Freud’s Project: Reading Group of 8th December 2012 (p35 to 48) or here

Preliminary notes from Seminar VII: 2nd & 9th December 1959 : p38 & p48 : Jean-Bertrand Lefèvre-Pontalis’ intervention : meeting on 5th January 2013 & 8th December 2012 or here

f) Seminar VII: 9^th December 1959:

Chapter IV: Das Ding

Sub-headings: Sache Und Wort; Niederschriften; Nebenmensch; Fremde:

Notes:

Preliminary notes from Seminar VII: 2nd & 9th December 1959 : p38 & p48 : Jean-Bertrand Lefèvre-Pontalis’ intervention : meeting on 5th January 2013 & 8th December 2012 or here

Notes from the Reading Seminar VII Group on 5th January 2013 & 8th December 2012 (Seminar VII : 2nd & 9th December 1959 : p48) or here

g) Seminar VII: 16^th December 1959:

Chapter V: Das Ding (II)

Sub-headings: The ‘Combinatoire’ of the ‘vorstellungen’; The limit of pain; Between perception and consciousness; The intersaid of ‘verneinung’; Mother as ‘Das Ding’

h) Seminar VII: 23^rd December  1959: Chapter VI: On the moral law

Sub-headings: The critique of practical reason; Philosophy in the Boudoir; The ten commandments; The epistle to the Romans.

References:

(p73) : (1 of many) : The importance of symbol-formation in the development of the ego : 1930 : Melanie Klein or here

Philosophy in the (Boudoir) Bedroom: 1795: Marquis de Sade 

The Critique of Practical Reason: 1788: Immanuel Kant

Notes

Notes on Seminar VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis : Session of 23rd December 1959: p81 – 1st and 2nd paragraph : ‘I am what I am’ : Group of 23^rd March 2013 : Available here

THE PROBLEM OF SUBLIMATION

i) Seminar VII: 13^th January 1960:

Chapter VII: Drives and lures

Sub-headings: The domain of the pastoral; The paradox of the moral conscience; world and body; Luther; The problem of object relation

Reference

P95 of Dennis Porter’s translation : On Narcissism – an Introduction : March 1914 : Sigmund Freud : Available here

Notes

Seminar VII : 13th January 1960 : p92 : “is desire conscious or unconscious?” : May 4th 2013 Reading Group : (Dream of the Botanical Monograph) or here

j) Seminar VII: 20^th January 1960:

Chapter VIII: The object and the thing:

Sub-headings: The psychology of affects; The Kleinian myth of the Mother; Kantian fables; Sublimation and perversion; The fable of Jacques Prévert, collector

References:

(p111) Sublimation, substitution and social anxiety : July 1931 : Edward Glover or here

Reference to the Seminar VI discussion of The Psycho-analysis of Affects: 1939: Edward Glover or here

See also : Seminar VI: Desire and its interpretation: 1958-1959 : from 12th November 1958 : Jacques Lacan or here

Similar and Divergent Unconscious Determinants Underlying the Sublimations of Pure Art and Pure Science: Lucerne, 31st July 1934 (published 1935): Ella Sharpe  or here

Certain aspects of Sublimation and Delusion: Oxford, 31st July 1929 (published 1930): Ella Sharpe  or here

Bemerkungen über Sublimierung (Observations on Sublimation): 1922 : Siegfried Bernfeld  or here

The Critique of Practical Reason: 1788: Immanuel Kant

Notes:

Affects: the discussion in Seminar VI : 26th November 1958 : p32, developed in Seminar VII : January 20th 1960: p102 or here

Seminar VII: 20th January 1960: p106 : Request for help with a reference or here

k) Seminar VII: 27^th January 1960:

Chapter IX: On creation ‘ex nihilo’

Sub-headings: The wonders of psychoanalysis; That which in the real suffers from the signifier; The fable of the pot and the vase; Introduction to Catharism; The drive, an ontological notion

Notes

Comment on post Seminar VII : 3rd February 1960 : p129 quoting Seminar VII : 27th January 1960 : p121(vases) by Owen Hewitson on September 7, 2013 or available here

References:

Infant Analysis: 1923 : Melanie Klein or here

Infantile Anxiety-Situations Reflected in a Work of Art and in the Creative Impulse : 1929 : Melanie Klein or here

l)  Seminar VII: 3^rd February 1960:

Chapter X: Marginal Comments

Sub-headings: Gnomic propositions; Art, Religion, science; On the subject of Spitz; Anamorphosis and architecture; The primacy of the ‘Es’

Reference:

The Primal Cavity : a contribution to the genesis of perception and its role for psychoanalytic theory : 1955 : René Spitz or here

Presentation:

Discussion during Seminar VII : Session of 3rd February 1960 between Jacques Lacan, Victor Nikolaevitch Smirnoff or Smirnov, Yvan Audourd, Jean Laplanche, & Unknown or here

Notes:

Notes from Seminar VII : 3rd February 1960 (p133) : Interventions by Xavier Audouard & Jean Laplanche on René Spitz & the function of ‘rooting’ : Reading Group of 28th September 2013

Notes from Seminar VII : 3rd February 1960 (p132 & top p133) : Discussion with Victor Smirnov on René Spitz’s ‘Yes and No’ : Reading Group of 7th September 2013

Discussion during Seminar VII : Session of 3rd February 1960 between Jacques Lacan, Victor Nikolaevitch Smirnoff or Smirnov, Yvan Audourd, Jean Laplanche, & Unknown or here

Seminar VII : 3rd February 1960 : p129 : Discussion of ‘function of sublimation with reference to the Thing.’  Or here by Julia Evans on September 7, 2013

Comment on post Seminar VII : 3rd February 1960 : p129 quoting Seminar VII : 27th January 1960 : p121(vases) by Owen Hewitson on September 7, 2013 or available here

m) Seminar VII : 10^th February 1960:

Chapter XI: Courtly love as anamorphosis

Sub-headings: On the history and ends of art; The sublimation of the Father; On the subject of Bernfeld; The vacuole and the inhuman partner; Negotiating the detour

References

Certain aspects of Sublimation and Delusion: Oxford, 31st July 1929 (published 1930): Ella Sharpe  or here

Bemerkungen über Sublimierung (Observations on Sublimation): 1922 : Siegfried Bernfeld  or here

Recommended text

The Allegory of Love : Chapter 1 – Courtly Love : 1936 : C. S. Lewis or here

Citations

P139 of Denis Porter’s translation : Seminar VII 10^th February 1960 :  ‘Perhaps what we described as the central place, as the intimate exteriority or “extimacy,” that is the Thing, will help us to shed light on the question or mystery that remains for those who are interested in prehistoric art, namely, its site as such.’  Quoted in The Zombie Epidemic: Hypermodern Version of the Apocalypse : 25th September 2013: New York: Jorge Assef or here 

n)  Seminar VII: 2^nd March 1960:

Chapter XII : A Critique of Bernfeld

Sub-headings: Reaction formation and sublimation; The precociousness of sublimation; Between Freudian aesthetics and ethics; Sublimation and identification; A curiosity

Presentation:

Intervention on Siegfried Bernfelt ‘Observations on Sublimation’ : Seminar VII, 2nd March 1960 : Pierre Kaufmann or here

References:

Seminar VII : 2nd March 1960 : Pierre Kaufmann’s intervention or here

Bemerkungen über Sublimierung (Observations on Sublimation): 1922 : Siegfried Bernfeld  or here

Notes (Reading Group 9^th November 2013):

Notes from Seminar VII : 2nd March 1960 : p155: Interventions by Pierre Kaufmann on Siegfried Bernfeld’s work or here

Seminar VII : 2nd March 1960 : p156 : Comments on Sigmund Freud’s ‘Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality’ by Julia Evans on 9^th November 2013 or here

Seminar VII : 2nd March 1960 : p156-159 : Pierre Kaufmann’s intervention or here

Seminar VII : 2nd March 1960 : p157 : Freud & Infantile Sexuality or here

Seminar VII : 2nd March 1960 : p157 : translation of quotes from Siegfried Bernfeld by Jo Rostron on November 9, 2013 or here

o) 9^th March 1960:

Supplementary Note: A curious case of sublimation

The case given by Mme Hubert has been omitted from Dennis Porter’s translation.

Intervention, during Seminar VII, on Hans Sperber’s “On the Influence of Sexual Factors on the Origin and Development of Language” (as commented on by Ernest Jones) and sublimation : 9th March 1960 (p164) : Mme Hubert or here

References:

p163 : The Theory of Symbolism : 1916 : Ernest Jones or here

Commentaries:

Seminar VII : 9th March 1960 : p164 : Missing intervention by Mme Hubert : Reading Group of 19th October 2013 or here

Note:

Jacques Lacan was in Brussels at this time. See below. He refers to this visit

Seminar VII : 16^th March 1960 : Chapter XIII – The Death of God : p169 of Denis Porter’s translation and Seminar VII : 23^rd  March 1960.

Lecture I, Regarding Morality, Freud Has What it Takes : Faculté Universitaire Saint-Louis, Brussels : 9th March 1960 : Jacques Lacan or here

Lecture II, Can Psychoanalysis Constitute the Kind of Ethics Necessitated by our Times?: Faculté Universitaire Saint-Louis, Brussels : 10th March 1960 : Jacques Lacan : Notes & availability here

THE PARADOX OF ‘JOUISSANCE’

p) Seminar VII: 16^th March 1960:

Chapter XIII: The death of God

Sub-headings: On sexual symbolism; From the ‘numen’ to Moses’s message; The great man and his murder; Freud’s Christocentrism; ‘Jouissance’ and debt

Reference:

Lecture II, Can Psychoanalysis Constitute the Kind of Ethics Necessitated by our Times?: Faculté Universitaire Saint-Louis, Brussels : 10th March 1960 : Jacques Lacan or here

Notes:

Sigmund Freud & Hilda Doolittle : a transference contextualised by Julia Evans on April 28, 2014 or here

Transmission according to Jacques Lacan or here

Discussion of Seminar VII: 16th March 1960: Can Psychoanalysis Constitute the Kind of Ethics Necessitated by our Times?  Or here

q) Seminar VII: 23^rd March 1960:

Chapter XIV: Love of one’s neighbour

Sub-headings: A special god; Fool and knave; The Truth about truth; Why ‘jouissance’ is evil [iii] ; Saint Martin; Kantian tales

Reference:

Lecture I, Regarding Morality, Freud Has What it Takes : Faculté Universitaire Saint-Louis, Brussels : 9th March 1960 : Jacques Lacan or here

The Critique of Practical Reason: 1788: Immanuel Kant

Notes:

(p179) Discussion of Seminar VII: 20th March 1960: continued comments on Jacques Lacan’s previous engagement in Brussels by Julia Evans on 30^th November 2013 or here

(p179) Tracking the use of ‘logos’ in Seminar VI and Seminar VII or here : 30^th November 2013

Quote from p182-183 in The Security State by David Ferraro (LRO 105) : 19th November 2018 or here : Comment on knave & fool.

r) Seminar VII: 30^th March 1960:

Chapter XV: The ‘jouissance’ of transgression

Sub-heading: The barrier to ‘Jouissance’; The respect of the image of the Other; Sade, his fantasm and his doctrine; ‘Metipsemus’; Fragmented and indestructible

Commentaries

Seminar VII : 31th March 1960 : p193 : Comments on εὐδαιμονία : Reading group of 1st February 2014 by Nicholas Stylianou on February 1, 2014 or here

References:

Philosophy in the (Boudoir) Bedroom: 1795: Marquis de Sade

s) Seminar VII : 27^th April 1960 :

Parenthesis, The Death Drive According to Bernfeld

Presentation:

Commentary on Siegfried Bernfeld’s & Sergei Feitelberg’s Death Drive : Seminar VII, 27th April 1960 : Pierre Kaufmann  or here

Reference:

The Principle of Entropy and the Death Instinct (Der Entropiesatz und der Todestrieb) : 1931 : Sigfried Bernfeld & Sergei Feitelberg or here

Bemerkungen über Sublimierung (Observations on Sublimation): 1922 : Siegfried Bernfeld  or here

Notes:

Reason for ‘Interrogating Freud & Lacan’ & how you may join in or here

(p198) Some relations between Jacques Lacan and Søren Kierkegaard: Seminars II, VII, X, XVII, XX & two of the Écrits or here

Pierre Kaufmann’s Commentary on Siegfried Bernfeld & Sergei Feitelberg’s Death Drive & Entropy : Seminar VII, 27th April 1960, p204-205 : Notes towards Reading Group of 22nd February 2014  or here

t) Seminar VII: 4^th May 1960:

Chapter XVI: The death drive

Sub-headings: Marx and the progressives; Jouissance, the satisfaction of a drive; The system of Pope Pius VI; Creationism and Evolutionism; Woman as ‘ex nihilo’

Reason for ‘Interrogating Freud & Lacan’ & how you may join in or here

p211 of Dennis Porter’s translationThe death drive in 4th & 18th May 1960 : Notes from the Seminar VII Reading Group of 10th May 2014 by Julia Evans on 10^th May 2014 or here  

Notes on Seminar VII : 4th May 1960 : p212 to 214 : the barrier of desire : Reading Group of 8th March 2014 or here

Tracking Jacques Lacan’s use of ‘logos’ in Seminar VI & VII & in Rome : 29th October 1974 or here by Julia Evans on 30th October 2013

u) Seminar VII: 11^th May 1960:

Chapter XVII: The function of the good

Sub-headings: Saint Augustine and Sade; Memory, Facilitation, Rite; The subject, Elision of a Signifier; The Textile Fable; Utility and ‘Jouissance’

References:

p226: The Theory of Symbolism : 1916 : Ernest Jones or here

Philosophy in the (Boudoir) Bedroom: 1795: Marquis de Sade

Commentary

Notes on Seminar VII : 11th May 1960 : p227 : the fable of Adam and Eve by Julia Evans on April 10, 2014 or here

v) Seminar VII: 18^th May 1960:

Chapter XVIII: The function of the beautiful

Sub-headings: The duplicity of the good; on the Potlatch; The discourse of science forgets nothing; Outrage and pain

Reason for ‘Interrogating Freud & Lacan’ & how you may join in or here

P236 of Dennis Porter’s translation : The death drive in 4th & 18th May 1960 : Notes from the Seminar VII Reading Group of 10th May 2014 by Julia Evans on 10^th May 2014 or here

THE ESSENCE OF TRAGEDY

A commentary on Sophocles’s ‘Antigone’

w) Seminar VII: 25^th May 1960:

Chapter XIX: The splendor of Antigone

Sub-headings: The meaning of catharsis; Hegel’s weakness; The function of the chorus; Goethe’s wish

Notes:

After a crisis, what emerges? by Julia Evans on August 4, 2014 Or available here

Sophocles’s ‘Antigone’ : Seminar VII, 25th May 1960 : A contemporary commentary  or here

x) Seminar VII: 1^st June 1960:

Chapter XX: The articulations of the play

Notes:

Sophocles’s ‘Antigone’ : Seminar VII, 25th May 1960 : A contemporary commentary or here

y) Seminar VII: 8^th June 1960:

Chapter XXI: Antigone between two deaths

Sub-headings: The-race-is-run; Sophocles’s anti-humanism; The law of ‘ex nihilo’; The death drive illustrated; Complement

Notes:

Sophocles’s ‘Antigone’ : Seminar VII, 25th May 1960 : A contemporary commentary  or here

z) Seminar VII: 15^th June 1960:

Chapter XXI: Supplementary note

THE TRAGIC DIMENSION OF PSYCHOANALYTIC EXPERIENCE

aa) Seminar VII: 22^nd June 1960;

Chapter XXII: The demand for happiness and the promise of analysis

Sub-headings: Desire and the last judgment; The second death; The fable of the clodhoppers; Hades and Dionysos; The analyst’s desire

bb) Seminar VII: 29^th June 1960:

Chapter XXIII: The moral goals of psychoanalysis

Sub-headings: The bourgeois dream; Oedipus, Lear, and the service of goods; The incorporation of the superego; The three fathers; Unreconciled Oedipus

cc) Seminar VII: 6^th July 1960:

Chapter XXIV: The paradoxes of ethics or Have you acted in conformity with your desire?

Sub-headings: The comic dimension; The fable of the cash register; Desire and guilt; Giving ground relative to one’s desire; Religion, science and desire

dd) Back bookcover [iv]  or

Reading Jacques Lacan’s Seminar VII: Ethics : Back book cover : See here