READINg Lacan

SEMINAR VII, The ETHICS OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

Weekly Reading Seminar
Wednesdays, 7:00 pm-8:30 pm Melbourne time
Convened by Eugénie Austin

Jacques Lacan’s Seminar VII, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis (1959–1960), is read aloud in full, line-by-line, with commentary and discussion. Moving through questions of desire, the good, das Ding, sublimation, tragedy and the death drive, Lacan asks what an ethics proper to psychoanalysis might be.

This is an ongoing reading seminar, and we have met weekly since 2019. We began Seminar VII, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, in 2025. Participants are welcome to join at any point; there is no expectation of prior knowledge, nor any requirement to attend every session.

We are currently reading Lacan’s extended exploration of tragedy through Sophocles’ play Antigone. Lacan in Australia recently performed Antigone in full over two acts. Visit this page for the details and the recordings.

All our events are free, online, open to all and recorded