Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor

Kevin Boileau, PhD

This is the 5th issue of our core journal and with it comes retrospect and review. All good things in life come from ideas, choices, and commitment. For example, in 2012, we made final preparations to develop and publish an academic and clinical journal in phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and critical theory. Five years later, we are able to look back at our hopes, acknowledge are errors, and bask in the realization that we made this journal come to presence. At the outset we contemplated a forum in which both theorists and clinicians would converge, drawing heavily from the complex trialectics involved in integrating three powerful discourses. Presently, we have come to learn how important and valuable our decision was, and still is.

This year we entertained presentations concerning the soul in mental health; a phenomenology of the unconscious; the phenomenology of symbolism and authenticity; the distinction being being and having in Marx and Aquinas; the philosophy of technology and temporality; an ontogenesis of shame; a critical look at the annihilations of terrorism; Adorno’s views about psychoanalysis and the dialectical subject; the psychoanalytic view of Otto Rank; a phenomenology of the technological self; and Lacan’s (psychoanalytic and phenomenological) antecedents. Coupled with year-long seminars involving the Flaubert studies, Lacan’s Ecrits, Badiou’s thoughts about being and event, and the early Husserl, it has been a challenging year of study. Being able to memorialize some of the work of some of our members is particularly rewarding, especially as

we develop our post-doctoral program, the radio show, and additional seminars and programs. Thus, this year’s journal is a step along our way to an unknown future.

Much of what we seek in our investigation of subjectivity is the transcendence of our heretofore fidelities and other theoretical commitments. In this endeavor, we hope for creative solutions to the aporias and lucanae of our own thinking history, and chances for work that provides us with a more palatable meaning to our existence. This community of thinkers has had the rare chance of meeting regularly, in some cases for several times per year for well over a decade. We know not where this shall lead, but we are already planning the next, and are grateful for this year’s work. As such, it feels appropriate to thank everyone who has contributed to this journal over the past five years. It has been a singular pleasure, a labor of love, and a well-spent investment in the future of this psychoanalytic organization and community.

From the desk of Kevin Boileau

Writing in Missoula

August, 2016