[UPDATE] Lacan and Philosophy (ACLA 2016, March 17 -20, Harvard University)
2015 marks the 40th anniversary of a controversial talk that Jacques Lacan gave at MIT. Lacan's audience came expecting a discussion of psychoanalytic theory and practice, but what they heard didn't fit within the confines of psychoanalysis. This produced much disappointment among audience members. On this anniversary, we propose to return to the question of where Lacan's thought belongs. Specifically, we want to consider Lacan as a philosopher and in relation to other philosophers. Though Lacan himself constantly emphasized his distance from philosophers like Kant, Hegel, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty, recent thinkers inspired by Lacan have seen himself, despite his stated intentions, as Kantian, Hegelian, or Sartrean.