While Not Having the Last Word …

Neill, Calum

Abstract

This chapter traces the final session of Lacan’s Seminar VII where he draws many of the key strands of the seminar together as close as he can to a conclusion. The insights of the seminar are, however, such that the very thinking through of ethics that Lacan has performed itself precludes the idea of a conclusion. This non-conclusive conclusion then allows us to grasp the open ethics Lacan is advocating, one which avoids both the Charybdis of a prescriptive morality and the Scylla of an anything goes approach and instead places desire, as a compass, at the heart of ethics.

Citation

Neill, C. (2024). While Not Having the Last Word …. In C. Owens (Ed.), Studying Lacan’s Seminar VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis (166-179). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003450795-8

• Acceptance Date: Mar 15, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Oct 4, 2023
• Publication Date: 2024
• Deposit Date: Apr 26, 2023
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 166-179
• Series Title: Studying Lacan's Seminars
• Book Title: Studying Lacan’s Seminar VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis
• Chapter Number: 8
• ISBN: 9781032586038, 9780367420338
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003450795-8
• Publisher URL: https://www.routledge.com/Studying-Lacans-Seminar-VII-The-Ethics-of-Psychoanalysis/Owens/p/book/9780367420338