Lacunae Issue 30

It is a well-trodden axiom to say that we live in interesting times. Nonetheless, certainly as it concerns psychoanalysis, this is not simply a cliché. Last year’s Appi congress provided a platform to discuss critical issues facing psychoanalysis in the context of a rapidly evolving, war-stricken geopolitical order and an increasingly techno-capitalist world. While what constitutes a critical issue or ‘crucial problem’ for psychoanalysis may be up for debate, what is not in question in Lacanian psychoanalysis is how the ethical principle of giving voice to a subject’s desire is central to an analysis. How to do this in today’s increasing resistance to long-term psychotherapy/ psychoanalysis, reflected within the proposed Coru regulations, and within the echo-chamber of consumerist demand and the capitalist discourse which incites us to enjoy/heal/cure in an immediate sense? This issue of Lacunae features articles on these issues and more by many of last year’s congress presenters and other authors. The liveliness, diversity, and engagement of the authors herein are testimony to the urgency we must bring to the questions confronting psychoanalysis at both the theoretical and practical levels today. In the maelstrom of the historic events occurring in Ireland and globally, psychoanalysis must take account of itself within the folds of discourse that constitute it.