Call for Papers Reworking Lacan at Work _2_ - ESCP Europe

Keynote speakers:
Call for papers
Re-working Lacan at work - 2013 Paris Conference
Conference to be held at ESCP Europe Business School
Paris, France, 14-15 June 2013
Geneviève Morel
Psychoanalyst, Paris, Lille
Chair of CP-ALEPH (French Association for the Study of Psychoanalysis and its History), Lille
Lecturer and Chair of Savoirs et Clinique (Association for Permanent Education in Psychoanalysis), Paris, Lille
Analyst of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research, London
Dany Nobus
Professor, Chair of Psychology and Psychoanalysis
Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Strategy, Development and External Relations
Head of MA Programme in Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Society
Brunel University, London
5 years after the 2008 Copenhagen Conference on Lacan at work and in addition to many recent
publications on this topic, we intend to continue exploring the contribution of a Lacanian perspective to the
study of work, management and organizations. This conference first aims to specify what makes the
Lacanian approach both complementary to, and different from, other approaches used: 1) in the field of
organizational psychodynamics (approaches inspired by other psychoanalytical schools: Freudian,
Kleinian, etc.); 2) and in the field of critical studies (approaches based on other traditions in philosophy,
politics, etc.), where the Lacanian perspective has taken a growing importance over the last years, mainly
influenced or mediated by the writings of the philosopher Slavoj Žižek. The second aim of the conference
consists of exploring how clinical and critical approaches of organizations, which both refer to
Lacanian theory, can be brought into a dialogue. Afer all, both approaches have mainly developed
separately and deserve to engage in a more systematic confrontation.
In this respect and in order to celebrate its 60 th birthday, we would like to reconnect with some of the spirit
of the famous Discourse of Rome (1953) that marked Lacan’s break with the analytic establishment and
the formation of his own school of thought based on a radical revision of psychoanalysis both in
questioning its main concepts and taking up issues shared with human and social sciences.
One of the most important resources in this respect is Lacan’s theory of the subject. The definition of the
unconscious as “the Other's discourse” and of subjectivity as “external” to the subject, in relation to the
theory of discourse, helps to overcome some of the internalizing and individualizing tendencies
psychoanalysis is commonly criticized for, and which have diminished its critical scope. Lacan's fight
against ego-psychology, his rejection of psychologism and of any form of “human engineering”, as well as
his ethical and scientific positioning are very useful for a critical approach to the central place given, in
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contemporary management, to work psychology, coaching, self improvement techniques or to the ideology
of “becoming oneself”. If, as Lacan declared, the object of psychoanalysis is not so much human beings as
such, but, rather what they lack, the psychoanalytic contribution to the study of organizations and of
management might well pertain to a science of what organizations lack. This lack is not some sort of void
that needs to be filled or evacuated, but a space where the subject experiences itself as desire, which has
an impact on organizational functioning as a whole.
With this conference we aim at gaining a better understanding of how Lacanian concepts or categories –
real/imaginary/symbolic, signifier, discourse, subject of the unconscious, subject supposed to know,
jouissance, castration, objet-a, Desire, alienation (in line with the very specific use of this word by Lacan),
fantasies, symptom/sinthome, etc – can be used to study work, management and organizations, both from
a critical and/or a clinical perspective.
We invite theoretical, methodological, epistemological or empirical contributions on any area connected to
one of these concepts and categories, in the light of the work of Lacan and of others in the Lacanian
tradition. The conference will be a working conference, that is to say, a venue to work on ideas with one
another. We welcome contributions from academics, practicing and trainee analysts, and from
practitioners. We wish to promote a space for the critical examination of ideas.
Submissions
We invite submissions of abstracts of no more than 1,000 words (in English). Deadline for submissions
is 15 December 2012. Full papers (in English or in French) will be required by 15 May 2013.
Abstracts should be sent as a Word attachment (containing also the title of the contribution, surname,
name, institution, mail address) to Gilles Arnaud (garnaud@escpeurope.eu) and Bénédicte Vidaillet
(benedicte.vidaillet@univ-lille1.fr).
Registration
A conference fee will be charged:
- Academic or Executive: 190€
- Individual: 80€
- Student: 40€
The conference will be held in English and in French. Simultaneous translation in French
or English will be provided.
For questions regarding the conference, please contact any member of the organizing committee.
Organizing Committee
Gilles Arnaud, ESCP Europe, France (garnaud@escpeurope.eu)
Carl Cederström, Cardiff University, UK (cederstromcf@Cardiff.ac.uk)
Laurent Chaine, Psychoanalyst, Paris, France (chaine.laurent@orange.fr)
Carine Chemin-Bouzir, Reims Management School, France (carine.chemin-bouzir@reims-ms.fr)
Casper Hoedemaekers, University of Essex, UK (choedem@essex.ac.uk)
Stijn Vanheule, Ghent University, Belgium (stijn.vanheule@UGent.be)
Bénédicte Vidaillet, University of Lille, France (benedicte.vidaillet@univ-lille1.fr)
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