Penumbr(a)cast - The Other Scene

Castration, with Lucie Cantin (English translation)

June 03, 2022 Fernanda Negrete Season 1 Episode 7
Castration, with Lucie Cantin (English translation)
Penumbr(a)cast - The Other Scene
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Penumbr(a)cast - The Other Scene
Castration, with Lucie Cantin (English translation)
Jun 03, 2022 Season 1 Episode 7
Fernanda Negrete

This episode discusses a contemporary use of the term castration, introduced by Freud. Cantin distinguishes between imaginary, symbolic, and real castration in relation to different moments of the human individual life and to the psychoanalytic cure, highlighting the relevance of castration as a work that liberates subjects from the cultural montage of sexuality that hijacks unconscious desire. The second half of the episode specifically explores the experiences and difficulties women face with regard to taking responsibility for their desire.

Special thanks to Tracy McNulty for recording the translated interview with me, to Amelia Gayle for working on the translation from French to English, and Omar Brown, Luke Heister, and Abhipsa Chakraborty for their editorial work on this episode!

Find Lucie Cantin’s work here:

The Drive, the Untreatable Quest of Desire” — differences

The Borderline, or the Impossibility of Producing a Negotiable Form in the Social Bond for the Return of the Censored” — Konturen 

Femininity: From passion to an ethics of the impossible” — Topoi 

After Lacan: Clinical Practice and the Subject of the Unconscious — Willy Apollon, Danielle Bergeron, Lucie Cantin (SUNY Press 2002)


References mentioned: 

“The Mirror Stage” — Lacan

“Psychoanalysis Terminable and Interminable” — Freud

Gaga: Five Foot Two (2017)

“The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen” — Olympe de Gouges

Here Women Don’t Dream — Rana Ahmad


Follow the Center for Psychoanalysis and Culture on Facebook

Read Penumbr(a), a new journal of psychoanalysis and modernity: https://www.penumbrajournal.org/





Show Notes

This episode discusses a contemporary use of the term castration, introduced by Freud. Cantin distinguishes between imaginary, symbolic, and real castration in relation to different moments of the human individual life and to the psychoanalytic cure, highlighting the relevance of castration as a work that liberates subjects from the cultural montage of sexuality that hijacks unconscious desire. The second half of the episode specifically explores the experiences and difficulties women face with regard to taking responsibility for their desire.

Special thanks to Tracy McNulty for recording the translated interview with me, to Amelia Gayle for working on the translation from French to English, and Omar Brown, Luke Heister, and Abhipsa Chakraborty for their editorial work on this episode!

Find Lucie Cantin’s work here:

The Drive, the Untreatable Quest of Desire” — differences

The Borderline, or the Impossibility of Producing a Negotiable Form in the Social Bond for the Return of the Censored” — Konturen 

Femininity: From passion to an ethics of the impossible” — Topoi 

After Lacan: Clinical Practice and the Subject of the Unconscious — Willy Apollon, Danielle Bergeron, Lucie Cantin (SUNY Press 2002)


References mentioned: 

“The Mirror Stage” — Lacan

“Psychoanalysis Terminable and Interminable” — Freud

Gaga: Five Foot Two (2017)

“The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen” — Olympe de Gouges

Here Women Don’t Dream — Rana Ahmad


Follow the Center for Psychoanalysis and Culture on Facebook

Read Penumbr(a), a new journal of psychoanalysis and modernity: https://www.penumbrajournal.org/