Learn Lacan

Toward Seminar XX (Encore)

Seminar XX · Encore: On Feminine Sexuality, the Limits of Love and KnowledgeJacques Lacan · 1972 is Lacan's most cited and most quoted late seminar — and the one most likely to make you give up if read first. Encore introduces Sexuation, the formulas of sexuation, the famous il n'y a pas de rapport sexuel ("there is no sexual relation"), the Borromean Knot, and the late theory of Lalangue and Other Jouissance.

This path stages what you need to read it without bouncing off.

[1] Confirm prerequisites

You should have a working grasp of Subject, Lack, Desire, Jouissance, Objet petit a, and the Symbolic / Real / Imaginary triad. If not, do Lacan in 10 hours first.

[2] Seminar XI deeply (~6 hr)

Seminar XI · The Four Fundamental Concepts of PsychoanalysisJacques Lacan · 1964 is the bridge from middle to late Lacan. Encore assumes everything XI established about Objet petit a, Drive, and the Subject's constitution in the Gaze.

Reread the chapters on:

  • The Subject and the Other ("Of the Subject Who is Supposed to Know")
  • The Drive and the Partial Object
  • The Field of the Other
  • Tuche and Automaton (Tuché / Automaton as the two faces of Repetition)

[3] Seminar VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis — selected (~5 hr)

Seminar VII · The Ethics of PsychoanalysisJacques Lacan · 1959 introduces Das Ding and the Ethics of Psychoanalysis — the precondition for understanding what Lacan means by "Other Jouissance" in Encore.

Read the chapters on Das Ding (sessions III–V) and the chapters on the structure of Sublimation (sessions IX–X). You can skip the Sade material on a first pass.

[4] Seminar XVII: The Other Side of Psychoanalysis — for the Discourses (~5 hr)

Seminar XVII · The Other Side of PsychoanalysisJacques Lacan · 1969 introduces the Four Discourses (Master, University, Hysteric, Analyst) — the formal apparatus Encore extends. Read the opening sessions where the discourses are constructed; you can skim the political-historical commentary.

After this you'll see why the Master Signifier (S1) and Knowledge (S2) keep appearing in late Lacan.

[5] Encore itself (~6 hr)

Seminar XX · Encore: On Feminine Sexuality, the Limits of Love and KnowledgeJacques Lacan · 1972 (or Seminar XX · Encore: On Feminine Sexuality, the Limits of Love and KnowledgeJacques Lacan · 1972 for comparison; see Translators).

Read in this order — not the published order:

  1. The opening sessions on jouissance and the body
  2. The "On Jouissance" lectures and the formulas of Sexuation
  3. The Borromean Knot sessions
  4. Then the chapters on Lalangue and the Other

Two warnings:

  • Sexuation is not gender: the formulas describe two ways of being subject to the Phallic Function, not anatomical or social categories. See Sexuation.
  • "There is no sexual relation": this is not a claim about sex life. It's a claim about Symbolic inscription — there is no signifier that writes the relation between sexed beings into the symbolic.

[6] Secondary commentary on Sexuation and Encore (~3 hr)

After reading Encore once and being mostly confused (this is normal), read:

[7] Encore the second time

Reread Encore with the secondary commentary in mind. You will catch about 60% of what eluded you the first time. That is success — even Lacan-scholars rarely claim more.

What still won't be clear

  • The Borromean Knot really requires drawing it. See the Borromean Knot schema page.
  • The relation between Lalangue and ordinary language is still actively debated. Joan Copjec and Alenka Zupančič read it differently from Žižek and Bruce Fink — surface this in the Lalangue page's Tensions section.
  • The "Not-all" formula divides commentators sharply. There is no consensus reading.

If you finish this path you have done the harder version of intermediate Lacan. From here, the Lacan and Marx path or Seminars XXII–XXVII (Borromean topology) are reasonable next steps.