Saturday September 5th 2026
9:30am-3:00pm
We are dressed, even overdressed, with knowledge, information, universal propositions - “Trauma elicits a fight-flight response in the brain”, “People with ADHD think this way...”, “Freud said....”, ‘Lacan thought...” - and exhortations - “Think positive”, “Be your best self”, “Live your dream”. The ever expanding effects of the discourse of science urge us to “best practice” - and why would we not want to have and to be the best?
Against this tide and its hidden dark effects of normalisation, exclusion and segregation, Lacan reserved a place for the subject un-recognisable as “self”, who comes into being as the rejected knower of an unknown knowledge. In his seminar, The Psychoanalytic Act, Lacan teases out the inventive potential of not-knowing. Against the theses of science he poses transmission of psychoanalytic knowledge as anti-thesis. Against the seductive wholeness promised by the “psy” field, he hears the subject forced to choose between “I do not think” and “I am not”. Against the framed qualification underpinning professed identity, he proposes that a psychoanalyst is qualified by one thing and in one moment only: by his act. This brings into play not a universal knowledge but singularity.
In 2026, the Freudian School of Melbourne has centred its program of study on the challenges posed by Lacan’s Seminar XV The Psychoanalytic Act, together with recent and related works by Jean Allouch and Christian Fierens. The results of this work will be presented at this annual Homage to Lacan.
VENUE: Centre for Theology and Ministry
29 College Crescent, Parkville
Please register your attendance.
Papers
Julian Browne:
In The Gloaming – A Means to an End or An End to the Means
Bernadette Jenner:
The Ineffable, Effable Naming of Acts
Tine Nørregaard:
The Ghost of a Voice
Megan Williams:
Double and No-thing
Malcolm Morgan:
An Act of Reading: “Fennegans Wick”
Jennifer Hauptmann:
Grammatical Narrative and Logical Myth
Jesse Rantamäki:
The Psychoanalytic Act and the Demand of the Drug
Peta Welsh:
Ex Post Acto
PUBLICATIONS
Letters of the Freudian School of Melbourne
écritique is the electronic journal of The Freudian School: School of Lacanian Psychoanalysis, presenting a growing collection of freely accessible writings on Lacanian psychoanalysis
Australian Psychoanalytic Writings
In his preface to the English Language edition of Seminar XI Lacan writes the following: I would mention that, as always, I am entangled in urgent cases as I write this. I write, however, in so far as I feel I must, in order to be on a level (au pair) with these cases, to make a pair with them.
Lacanian psychoanalytic seminars in Melbourne
These courses provide participants with a rigorous working of the fundamental concepts underpinning Freudian and Lacanian theory and clinical practice.
For further information or to arrange a confidential interview, please telephone one of the Formation Committee:
Clinical Directory
Access the directory of the Freudian School of Melbourne's clinical membership to find a clinical service or supervisor in your area.
CONFERENCE: ANNUAL HOMAGE TO LACAN
Seminars, Reading Groups, etc…
Access the directory of the Freudian School of Melbourne's clinical membership to find a clinical service or supervisor in your area.