Jean Laplanche's 'The Unfinished Copernican Revolution'

In the mid-sixteenth century Copernicus made an essential change to the way people understood their place in the universe. Displaced from the world’s centre, the earth and its people were forced to reconceive their position. Nearly four centuries later, Freud would invoke Copernicus when characterising what he saw as a revolution of his own: a theory of the unconscious. The centre of the subject was displaced once more, fractured and shifted to a second order of sorts. But Jean Lapanche, psychoanalyst-philosopher and wine-maker extraordinaire, thought Freud’s 'revolution' failed to go far enough. In 'The Unfinished Copernican Revolution' Laplanche traces the vine of 'subjectivism' from Copernicus through Freud, plugging the gaps with something suitably full-bodied.

On Monday 24 November, Dr. Nicholas Ray (Lecturer in Critical and Cultural Theory at the University of Leeds) will be chairing a seminar on Laplanche’s corking essay at the University of York. Dr. Ray is author of Tragedy and Otherness, co-translator of Laplanche’s final book, Freud and the Sexual (2011), and co-editor of the forthcoming Seductions and Enigmas: Laplanche, Theory, Culture (2014).

In the spirit of Laplanche’s contribution to the world of wine, we’ll let things ferment with a glass or two of our own. Open to all comers. 

This event is hosted by the Reading and Interpretation series. For more information about the group and copies of reading material please visit our website or contact Alex Alonso or Doug Battersby.