The Rope of Sexuality or How Children ‘researches’ Prime the Place of Sexuality—a Freudian Laplanchian View
Evening Lecture by psychoanalyst Cecilia Taiana at the IPU Berlin on 15 October. Moreover, Cecilia Taiana will conduct an exclusive workshop for IPU students the day after.
The lecture closely examines Freud's papers dedicated to children's investigation and infantile sexual theories, exploring their connection to the emergence of the epistemological drive in children. As the epistemological aspects of the drive are set in motion, the child's thinking becomes an independent instinct of research, shaping a new instinctual aim. According to Freud, we should pay attention to the infantile theories of children because they are still “operative in adulthood” and they acquire a “determining influence upon the form taken by the symptoms” (1908, p. 211).
Freud's notion of the presence of sexual impulses and erotogenic zones in newborns is juxtaposed with Laplanche's perspective, where the non-sexual (self-preservative) drive is seen as concomitantly and simultaneously instituted with the care of infants. Laplanche's concept of propping transcends mere support, instigating the self-preservative drive. Noteworthy divergences between Freud's concept of the drive and Laplanche's theory of the adult-other excitatory message are outlined, contributing to a nuanced comprehension of the intricate development and enduring influence of infantile sexuality on adult jouissance. This article probes the complexities of children's sexual theories, asserting that these early sexual theories persist in shaping the sexual theories of adults.
The Lecturer
Cecilia Taiana, Ph.D., born in Argentina, is a psychoanalyst and a distinguished academic, author, researcher and teacher based in Ottawa, Canada. Her most recent articles, part of a trilogy, are on What does poetry offer psychoanalysis? Robert Frost’s Sound Sense, CJP, Spring 2022, and T S. Eliot’s Concept of Tradition, CJP, Fall 2022. The third article is on Wallace Stevens, Connoisseur of Chaos, and His Notion of Motion, CJP, forthcoming 2024. The journal for da has published two of Cecilia’s poems, A Tale of Sounds, Fall 2022 and Émilie du Châtelet, Spring 2023. A third poem, Our Abiding Companion, was submitted to the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society for publication in their Website Poet’s Corner.
Cecilia Taianas professional training spanned four cities and three continents, taking place in Buenos Aires, Paris, London and Ottawa. She has extensive background in issues relating to psychological trauma, broadening her research through visits to traumatic distress centres in Toronto, London and Buenos Aires during a 2004 sabbatical year.
Cecilia Taiana has recently begun a sabbatical year from her current position as an Associate Professor at the School of Social Work at Carleton University.
Information and Registration
When?
15 October 2024, 6 pm
Where?
Lecture Hall 1 (Stromstraße 2, 10555 Berlin)
Please register for the lecture via the form.
The lecture will be followed by a workshop on 16 October 2024, 2-6 pm. IPU students can register here.