Torus of Reason

Exploring Lacan’s Encore Seminar XX examines the themes presented in Encore, the seminar presented by Lacan between 1972 and 1975.

Raul Moncayo, Barri Belnap, and Greg Farr focus on Lacan’s presentation of the theory of the Third Jouissance, clarifying the difference between jouissance as a concept and as a word. The authors argue that although there are many words that Lacan uses for jouissance, there are only five concepts of jouissance: the first is inconvenient, the second is convenient and inconvenient, while the last three are convenient and constructive.

Exploring Lacan’s Encore Seminar XX will be essential reading for academics and scholars of Lacanian studies, Lacanian analysts, and readers interested in Lacan’s theories of the 1970s.

Dr. Raul Moncayo has taught at many academic institutions in the Bay Area and abroad. As a retired training director of a large public psychiatric clinic in the Mission district or barrio of San Francisco, he formed and informed generations of clinicians. Dr. Moncayo was founding member of LSP (Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis). He is also the founder of the Chinese American Center for Freudian and Lacanian Analysis and Research. He has published 12 books with Karnac and Routledge. Among them are Psychoanalysis and American Literature; Lacan and Chan Buddhism; The Practice of Lacanian Psychoanalysis; and Knowing, not-Knowing and Jouissance.

Dr. Barri Belnap, MD, is a physician and psychoanalyst. A graduate of Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, she completed residency and fellowship at The Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where she served as a senior clinician for 27 years. Now she is devoted to her private psychoanalytic practice, study of group relations, and leadership. Her speaking and writings span topics from psychoanalytic techniques of PTSD and psychosis and psychopharmacology to affect theory.

Greg Farr currently serves professionally as the Archivist of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut and was formally employed as the Archivist and Librarian at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Greg first developed his interest in Lacan’s works during his doctorate studies in the Philosophy of Religion at Boston University. He earned his undergraduate degree in Religious Studies at the University of Montana and his Master’s Degree of Theological Studies again at Boston University. Greg additionally completed two years of graduate study in Philosophical Theology at the University of Virginia and subsequently earned an MLIS degree at Drexel University in 2012.