The predictive unconscious is structured like a language

John Dall’Aglio

The predictive unconscious is structured like a language:
Toward a Lacanian neuropsychoanalytic
theory of the subject

With Leonardo Silenzi as discussant

11 a.m. (Eastern USA)

Please click here to view the video of this event.

This webinar will be approximately two hours long.

Start time in selected time zones

The centrality of language in Lacanian theory (e.g., the subject is an effect of language; the unconscious is structured like a language) might seem rather distant from neuropsychoanalytic developments in affective consciousness and non-declarative memories. In this talk, to the contrary, I will propose how these interwoven claims about the subject and language not only resonate with contemporary neuroscience but also open a new lens onto predictive coding and affective consciousness. 

Various neurobiological correlates are proposed for certain necessary conditions of the subject, specifically: (1) conflicting hyperpriors of Jaak Panksepp’s instincts as a constitutive, structural antagonism; (2) Mark Solms’ ‘consciousness as felt uncertainty’ as the minimal ‘empty space’ of the subject; and (3) Ariane Bazan’s formal motoric patterns as conditional for the ‘signifier-ness’ of the predictive system. The Lacanian (neuropsychoanalytic) subject ‘ex-sists’ precisely in the empty overlap between conflicting hyperpriors and the ‘slippage of prediction’. Clinical implications will be discussed and illustrated, with particular attention to the role of ‘signifier-like’ predictions and surprise (including the ‘variable-length session’).

Bio
John Dall’Aglio is a PhD student in Clinical Psychology at Duquesne University. He was the founder and former director of the Brown University Psychoanalytic Society. His current work involves theoretical and clinical research in Lacanian neuropsychoanalysis. 

CPD credits: 2
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