Perversion in Lacan: A Structural Diagnosis Or…?


Guest Lecture by Prof. Stephanie Swales (University of Dallas)

In contemporary times where binary notions of gender and sexuality have given way to embracing fluidity, should we consider perversion, alongside neurosis and psychosis, to be a structural category of diagnosis?  If not, then how should we consider the concept of perversion?  Drawing from my 2012 book, Perversion: A Lacanian Psychoanalytic Approach to the Subject, I will review Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan’s central formulations about perversion.  The drive, the object, castration, the law, demand, desire, and the Other will all be employed in this endeavor. In pursuing the question of whether or not perversion should be considered a separate structural diagnosis, I will focus on two cases of exhibitionism - one of which is that of "Ray" from my book on perversion. 

Stephanie Swales, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Dallas, received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Duquesne University and her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College. She is a practicing psychoanalyst and licensed clinical psychologist, providing treatment to children and adults at her office in Preston Center in Dallas.

Swales specializes in the theory and practice of Lacanian psychoanalysis and its intersections with critical psychology.  She has published two books: Psychoanalysing Ambivalence with Freud and Lacan: On and Off the Couch (Routledge, 2019), co-authored with Carol Owens, and Perversion: A Lacanian Psychoanalytic Approach to the Subject (Routledge, 2012).  Dr. Swales has also published numerous articles and book chapters.  Her current research focuses on empathy and liminality. She is also a member of Community Assistance Research. 

She is the Secretary for APA’s Division 24 (Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology), Founder of the Dallas/Fort Worth-area Lacan Study Group, Analyst, Secretary, and Faculty of the Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis, Past President of the Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology, Curriculum Committee member of the Dallas Post Graduate Program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and reviewer for numerous journals in the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis.

Details and Registration

On June 14th at 7 pm. 

IPU Berlin (Hörsaal 1)
Stromstr. 1
10555 Berlin

Please register using the form below.