Lacan on Time | Prof. Derek Hook

This Lacan in Scotland seminar "On Lacan’s ‘Backward Reaching Futurity’" took place 3 April 2025 on Zoom. Professor Derek Hook, Lacanian scholar and practitioner, offers an in-depth analysis of Lacan’s innovative theories of temporal dimensions in the practice of psychoanalysis. The seminar is chaired by Professor Calum Neill, Director of Lacan in Scotland, and ends in a Q&A with the audience. VIDEO TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Intro 02:08 - Presentation 57:31 - Discussion with Calum 1:07:36 - Q&A with audience 1:27:56 - Calum's last question DESCRIPTION OF THE SEMINAR In Lacanian circles, we often remark on Lacan’s innovations in re-thinking the time of the unconscious. As a matter of course, we emphasize Freud’s Nachträglichkeit (the factor of reverberation time/afterwardsness, or après-coup). We likewise highlight the dimension of logical time as opposed to psychological notions of development stages. We highlight Lacan’s critique of regression and reiterate ideas of anticipatory certitude alongside the obligatory reference to the temporality of the future anterior. How, though, are these ideas effectively implemented in clinical practice, and how do they relate to what we might call the ‘function of the limit’? How, furthermore, might several of Lacan’s technical innovations in respect of the time of sessions––scansion, punctuation, etc.––be said to extend Freud’s fundamental rule? And why should the dimension of a backward reaching futurity be so crucial if a psychoanalytic treatment is to enable ‘an unwriting of the future’? SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY Professor Derek Hook is a scholar and a practitioner of psychoanalysis with expertise in the areas of Lacanian psychoanalysis, post-colonial theory (the work of Frantz Fanon in particular), the psychology of racism and critical social psychology. In addition to co-editing the successful Palgrave Lacan Series with Calum Neill (which has published 16 titles in the past five years) he is one of three editors (along with Stijn Vanheule and Calum Neill) of the landmark 3-volume series Reading Lacan’s Écrits (Routledge). His most recent book is Six Moments in Lacan (2017). His edited collection, Lie on Your Wounds: The Prison Correspondence of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe was published in 2019 (Wits University/New York University Press). He also has a successful YouTube channel:    / @derekhookonlacan   ABOUT LACAN IN SCOTLAND Lacan in Scotland runs a regular seminar series, currently with seminars taking place on Thursdays online at the end of the month. Sign up to our mailing list to get notified about upcoming events: https://lacaninscotland.com. And, of course, subscribe to our Youtube channel and hit the bell button to receive notifications about recordings of past events!