COURSE DESCRIPTION

Psychoanalysis and the social bond


Programme:

Comparative Studies of Ideas and Cultures (3rd level)

Module:
The Transformation of Modern Thought – Philosophy, psychoanalysis, culture

Course code: 24 

Year of study: Not specified


Course principal:
Prof. Alenka Zupančič, Ph.D.
Assoc. Prof. Peter Klepec, Ph. D.

ECTS: 6

Workload: lectures 60 hours, seminar 30 hours

Course type: general elective 

Languages: Slovene 

Learning and teaching methods: lectures, discussions classes 

 

Course syllabus

Prerequisits:

None required.

 

Content (Syllabus outline):

Fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis:

  • The unconscious
  • Drive
  • Repetition
  • Transference

 

Intersections of individual and social features:

  • Desire and its relation to the Other
  • Fantasy and the structure of reality
  • Sublimation and the problem of cultural values
  • The subjective and collective economy of enjoyment
  • Civilization and its discontents

 

Theory of four types of social bond:

  • Agent, truth, the Other, production
  • Subject, plus-de-jouir, knowledge, signifier
  • Permutations of the social bond

 

Psychoanalysis and contemporary approaches to analysis of the social bond:

  • Psychoanalysis and Marxism (Marx, Adorno, Althusser)
  • Badiou’s theory of four subjective figures
  • Foucault and his conceptualization of dispositif
  • Deleuze and the Nietzschean perspective

 

Readings:

This list presents only basic required literature. Students will receive further reading lists for individual lessons and term projects.

  • Adorno, T. W., 1981. Freudovska teorija in struktura fašistične propagande. V: Psihoanaliza in kultura, Ljubljana: DZS.
  • Althusser. 2000. Ideologija in ideološki aparati države. V: Izbrani spisi, Ljubljana: cf.
  • Butler Judith, Laclau Ernesto, Žižek, Slavoj. 2000. Contingency, Hegemony, Universality, London & New York: Verso.
  • Clemens Justin, Russell Grigg ur. 2006. Jacques Lacan and the Other Side of Psychoanalysis (Sic 6), Durham & London: Duke University Press.
  • Deleuze, Gilles. 2000. Predstavitev Sacherja Masocha. V: Mazohizem in zakon, Ljubljana: Analecta: 11-100.
  • Badiou, Alain. 2005. 20. stoletje, Ljubljana: Analecta.
  • Foucault, Michel. 1991. Vednost – oblast – subjekt, Ljubljana: Krt.
  • Freud, Sigmund. 1987. Metapsihološki spisi, Ljubljana: Studia Humanitatis.
  • Freud, Sigmund. 1981. Množična psihologija in analiza jaza. V: Psihoanaliza in kultura, Ljubljana: DZS.
  • Lacan, Jacques. 1996. Štirje temeljni koncepti psihoanalize, Ljubljana: Analecta.
  • Lacan, Jacques. 2003. Narobna stran psihoanalize, Razpol 13 (Problemi 6-8).
  • Mannoni, Octave. 1993. »Saj vem, pa vendar…«. V: Filozofija skozi psihoanalizo VII., Ljubljana: Analecta.
  • Miller, Gérard. 1981. Jedro strukture dominacije. V: Psihoanaliza in kultura, Ljubljana: DZS.
  • Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1988. H genealogiji morale, Ljubljana: Slovenska matica.
  • Žižek, Slavoj. 1999. The Ticklish Subject. The Absent Centre of Political Ontology, London & New York.

 

Objectives and competences:

From its very beginnings, psychoanalysis has been more than just clinical practice. At many points, psychoanalysis has been connected to philosophy as well as some other, younger disciplines (especially linguistics), and it soon developed a complex conceptual apparatus, with which it significantly contributed to analysis of various social phenomena and practices. Psychoanalysis now occupies a prominent place among currents of twentieth-century thought; in addition to Freud, Jacques Lacan has contributed the most to development in this direction. This course acquaints students with some key concepts of psychoanalysis from two main perspectives. The first concerns research on the inner relationship between certain psychoanalytic concepts and philosophy (classical and contemporary), and the second investigates the links between psychoanalysis and its broader social context. In this part, the emphasis is on the past and possible future contributions of psychoanalysis to analysing various social practices forming a social bond and contributing to its ideological background. The lectures present Lacan’s theory of four social links or “discourses,” as well as an overview of other contemporary theories of the social bond in their specific features (e.g., Althusser, Adorno, Badiou, Foucault, and Deleuze). In addition to basic concepts of psychoanalysis and their links with other currents of thought, the students become acquainted with various ways of thinking and various aspects of the social bond with the help of the conceptual apparatus presented; they will be able to understand and analyse various discursive practices (art, religion, etc.) in relationship to the social context in which they appear.

 

Intended learning outcomes:

Students use the knowledge acquired in the course to write a piece of academic writing that can serve as a draft of a dissertation chapter or a research article.

 

Learning and teaching methods:

Types of learning/teaching:

  • Frontal teaching
  • Independent students work
  • e-learning

 

Teaching methods:

  • Explanation
  • Conversation/discussion/debate
  • Work with texts

 

Assessment:

  • 80 % Long written assignments
  • 20 % Final examination (written/oral).

MODULE GENERAL ELECTIVE COURSES

Contemporary philosophy and modernist literature

Assist. Prof. Rok Benčin, Ph.D.,

ECTS: 6

Critical Aesthetics and Twentieth-Century Art

Prof. Aleš Erjavec, Ph. D. ,

Prof. Lev Kreft, Ph. D. ,

ECTS: 6

Formation of the Concepts

Assist. Prof. Aleš Bunta, Ph. D. ,

Assist. Prof. Tadej Troha, Ph. D. ,

ECTS: 6

German idealism and its consequences

Assoc. Prof. Frank Ruda, Ph. D. ,

ECTS: 6

Ideology and Philosophy

Assoc. Prof. Jan Völker, Ph. D. ,

ECTS: 6

Philosophy and Psychoanalysis

Prof. Jelica Šumič Riha, Ph. D.,

ECTS: 6

Philosophy and scientific revolution

Assoc. Prof. Matjaž Vesel, Ph.D.,

ECTS: 6

Psychoanalysis and the social bond

Prof. Alenka Zupančič, Ph.D.,

Assoc. Prof. Peter Klepec, Ph. D.,

ECTS: 6

Assoc. Prof. Peter Klepec, Ph. D.

Associate professor at the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU, research Advisor at the Institute of Philosophy, Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia.



peter.klepec@zrc-sazu.si

Education:

  • 1992 BA in philosophy Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana
  • 1995 MA in philosophy Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana
  • 1998 PhD in philosophy Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana

 

Teaching activities:

  • 1999-2000 Visiting Lecturer at University of Maribor
  • 2000-2002 Visiting Lecturer at University of Primorska
  • 1999-2004 Visiting Lecturer at ISH Ljubljana
  • 2008-2012 Visiting Lecturer at University of Nova Gorica
  • 2006-Today Assistant Professor and from 2015 Associate professor at Postgraduate School of ZRC SAZU

 

Employment:

  • 1998-Today Assistant, from 1999 Researcher, from 2006 Research Assistant, and from 2011 Research Advisor at Institute of Philosophy ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana

 

Research interests:

  • Contemporary philosophy,
  • psychoanalysis,
  • political philosophy,
  • German Idealism


Lectures abroad:

  • Public in the making? : a philosophical point of view : key-note speaker at the conference “Public in the Making”, Istanbul Technical University, Carigrad (Turčija), 19. oCt. 2018
  • Encountering the real : lecture at conference “LACK 2016 : Psychoanalysis and freedom”, Colorado College, Colorado Springs (USA), 22. apr. 2016
  • What kind of domination is the ongoing economic crisis bringing to the fore? : lecture at Cardiff University, Cardiff School of Modern Languages, Cardiff (Great Britain), 4. apr. 2016
  • How neoliberalism survived the crisis? : key-note speaker at the conference “Thinking Beyond Capitalism”, University of Belgrade (Serbia), 26. jun. 2015

Editorial work:

  • 2004- Editor-in-Chief Filozofski vestnik, member of editorial board from 1996
  • 1993- member of editorial board Problemi
  • 2013- member of international editorial board Filozofija i društvo, Belgrade, Serbia

 

Supervision:

  • succesfully completed Ph.D supervisions: 3
  • succesfully completed Ph.D co-supervisions: 3
  • ongoing Ph.D supervisions: 2
  • ongoing Ph.D co-supervisions: 1
  • mentorships of young researchers: 1

 

Research activities:

  • Current research program: Conditions and Problems of Contemporary Philosophy III (2015-2021)
  • Current research projects: Europe as Philosophical Idea and as Political Project (2017-2020)
  • Previous research programs: Conditions and Problems of Contemporary Philosophy II (2009-2015); Conditions and Problems of Contemporary Philosophy I (2003-2009); Problems and Conditions of Contemporary Philosophy (1998-2003)
  • Previous research projects: Reconfigurations of Ontology (2014-2017); The Philosophy of Crisis: Economy – Politics – Ecology (2013–2016; as leader); Problem of Aisthesis in Philosophy, Psychoanalysis and Politics (2011-2014); Art Practices of the 20th and 21st Century and the Political (2008-2011); Antropological Machines, Biopolitics, Production and Genealogy of (bare) Life (2007-2009); Europe and Politics of Translation (2007-2009); Philosophical Problems of Ethics (2004-2007); Virtual and Aesthetic Constitution of (post)Modern Subject and its Politico-Philosophical and Epistemological Implications (2001-2004); The Relationship between Philosophy and Politics in Postmodern (1998-2003); Philosophical Problems of Contingency and Infinity (2000-2002); Socio-philosophical Interpretation of State and Institutionalization and Monopolization of Violence (1995-1998)

 

International collaboration:

  • Postdoc at Université Paris VIII, France, januar to june 1999 (Rancière, Badiou), shorter periods of collaboration with the same institution in 2000, 2001, 2005
  • Collaboration with National Library of Serbia (Svetlana Gavrilović) and Institute for philosophy and Social Theory Belgrade, Serbia 2007-2012
  • Leadership of Slovene-serbina bilateral project »Diskontinuity, radicality and violence« BI-SR/10-11-017 (together with dr. Petar Bojanić), 2010-2011. Co-organization within this frame of three international conferences: “Europe in the emerging world order searching for a new paradigm”, Belgrade 24-26. mar. 2010, “Violence, guerre et État chez Deleuze”, Belgrade 3-5. mar. 2011 and “De la terreur à l’extrême violence”, Belgrade, 8-10. dec. 2011
  • Coorganization of international conference Thinking of(f) the Crisis, organized by Institute of Philosophy ZRC SAZU and Cardiff University, Great Britain, 1. & 2. june 2016
  • Coorganization of international conference “The end(s) of political theology”, organized by Institute of Philosophy ZRC SAZU and Lancaster, University Great Britain, ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana, 5. & 6. june 2018

Selected publications:

  • Matrice podrejanja. Kapitalizem in perverzija 2. [Matrices of Subjection. Capitalism and Perversion 2], DTP, Ljubljana 2019
  • Kapitalizam i perverzija. 1, Profitabilne strasti [Capitalism and Perversion 1. Profitable Passions], Izdavačka knjižarnica Zorana Stojanovića, Novi Sad 2016
  • Dobičkonosne strasti. Kapitalizem in perverzija 1. [Profitable Passions. Capitalism and Perversion 1], DTP, Ljubljana 2008
  • Vznik subjekta [On the Emergence of the Subject], Založba ZRC, Ljubljana 2004

 

  • Tips and tricks : remarks on the debate between Badiou and Cassin on ʼSophisticsʼ. In: Johnston, Adrian (ed.), Nedoh, Boštjan (), Zupančič, Alenka (ed.). Objective fictions : philosophy, psychoanalysis, Marxism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022, pp. 124-143
  • Sadizem, Schadenfreude in krutost [Sadism, Schadenfreude and cruelty]. Filozofski vestnik, 2021, Vol. 42, No. 3, pp. 155–201
  • World? Which world? : on some pitfalls of a concept. In: BENČIN, Rok (ed.). The concept of world in contemporary philosophy. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2021. Filozofski vestnik, 42, No. 2, pp. 45-69
  • Covid 19, das Unheimliche in nočna mora [Covid 19, the Uncanny and nighmare]. Problemi : revija za kulturo in družbena vprašanja, 2020, Vol. 58, No. 9/10, pp. 111-139
  • On “the Idea” in Badiou. Problemi : revija za kulturo in družbena vprašanja. 2019, Vol. 57, No. 11/12, pp. 275-300
  • Crisis, Europe. In: Šumič-Riha, Jelica (ed.). Rethinking the idea of Europe. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2019. Letn. 40, No. 2, pp. 117-136
  • On Lacanʼs The Triumph of Religion and related matters. Filozofski vestnik, 2019, Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 139-162
  • O zastavkih Badioujeve Imanence resnic [On Stakes of Badiou’s Immanence of Truths]. Problemi : revija za kulturo in družbena vprašanja. 2019, Vol. 57, No. 3/4, pp. 107-132
  • On the touch of swear words : swearing and the Lacanian real. In: Komel, Mirt (ed.). The language of touch : philosophical examinations in linguistics and haptic studies. London [etc.]: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019, str. 121-135
  • Od strukturalizma strasti do spleta afektov [From Structuralism of Passions to the Web of Affects]. Problemi : revija za kulturo in družbena vprašanja. 2018, Vol. 56, No. 3/4, pp. 189-235
  • Badioujev Platon [Badiou’s Plato]. Problemi : revija za kulturo in družbena vprašanja. 2017, Vol. 55, št. 5/6, pp. 145-183
  • For another Lacan-Deleuze encounter. In: Nedoh, Boštjan (ed.), Zevnik, Andreja (ed.). Lacan and Deleuze : a disjunctive synthesis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017, pp. 13-31

MODULE GENERAL ELECTIVE COURSES

Contemporary philosophy and modernist literature

Assist. Prof. Rok Benčin, Ph.D.,

ECTS: 6

Critical Aesthetics and Twentieth-Century Art

Prof. Aleš Erjavec, Ph. D. ,

Prof. Lev Kreft, Ph. D. ,

ECTS: 6

Formation of the Concepts

Assist. Prof. Aleš Bunta, Ph. D. ,

Assist. Prof. Tadej Troha, Ph. D. ,

ECTS: 6

German idealism and its consequences

Assoc. Prof. Frank Ruda, Ph. D. ,

ECTS: 6

Ideology and Philosophy

Assoc. Prof. Jan Völker, Ph. D. ,

ECTS: 6

Philosophy and Psychoanalysis

Prof. Jelica Šumič Riha, Ph. D.,

ECTS: 6

Philosophy and scientific revolution

Assoc. Prof. Matjaž Vesel, Ph.D.,

ECTS: 6

Psychoanalysis and the social bond

Prof. Alenka Zupančič, Ph.D.,

Assoc. Prof. Peter Klepec, Ph. D.,

ECTS: 6