The drive and the unconscious in clinical presentations

Seminar with Dries G. M. Dulsster*

Open Event (ONLINE), registration HERE.

When: Saturday 21 of November 2026, 10h30 AM to 12h30 PM (Vancouver, BC)

This talk explores how Lacanian concepts of the drive, object a, and jouissance can orient differential diagnosis in clinical practice. Rather than beginning from observable symptoms alone, I will examine how different clinical structures organise and localise jouissance in distinct ways. Focusing particularly on psychosis, I will discuss paranoia, schizophrenia, melancholia, mania, and autism, showing how each involves a different relation to the body, language, the Other, and object a. Through clinical examples, I will argue that these distinctions matter not only diagnostically, but also for how we position ourselves in the transference and orient treatment.

Recommended reading:

El-Omari, A. (2023). Amar El-Omari – The awakening of a clinician. In D. G. M. Dulsster (Ed.), Clinical encounters and the Lacanian analyst: “Who’s your Dora?” (pp. 48–57). Routledge.

Dries G. M. Dulsster is Internship Coordinator and Educational Supervisor at the Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Ghent University, Belgium. He works as a psychoanalyst in a private practice and is Editor in Chief of the Psychoanalytische Perspectieven.