The Month of Libido

Last month I announced the launch of the live event space. ​ This month I am happy to announce the first active month of the live event space! ​ (To learn more, or to sign up for January, see: The Month of Libido)

The start of 2024 is the start of a new orientation and aim for Philosophy Portal. ​ In the first two years, we have focused on large-scale course work connected to conference and anthologies. ​ This year we will still try to build out large-scale courses, we will be hosting a conference in February (to be announced soon), as well as hopefully releasing two anthologies, however, our main focus is going to shift to the live event space.

What do you need to know that I have not already stated in the first announcement?

The live event space will feature four different events organised by a single theme. ​ That is the constant. ​ What is new is that this month we have the specific focus on the concept of libido. ​ The concept of libido (most generally thought of as "psychic sexual energy") is a foundational concept in the history of psychoanalysis, used by Freud to either relate to a "life force" (physics metaphor) or "eros" (mythological story). ​ The concept has evolved throughout analytic history, with significant modifications and reinterpretations by 20th century analysts like Carl Jung and Jacques Lacan, but also many philosophical reinterpretations in the 21st century by the Slovenian school philosophers like Slavoj Žižek and Alenka Zupančič. ​ We will be exploring this concept in detail for the first live event space Concept Cave (a space to learn fundamental concepts) on Sunday January 7th 2024 / 6pm CET (for an intro blog post, see: LIBIDO).

The second event this month will focus on Magic and Psychoanalysis with meta-shaman Layman Pascal, host of The Integral Stage. ​ Layman Pascal taught a course last year with Parallax titled The Teratogenic Mystique as well as launched a new blog title Xagick. ​ I attended the course, started reading the blog and felt that there were connections here that might be interesting to play with at the edge of psychoanalytic theory and practice. ​ This playing at the edge is the crucial aspect of The Edge dimension of the live event space. ​ Pascal will be bringing how he reads the edge of magic and psychoanalysis, and we will try to co-mediate the emergence of a space of exploration on ideas that are currently undefined and unconceptualised. ​ For me personally, I am interested to bring some of my recent studies on Lacan's Écrits to questions of magic and causality, as well as provoking Layman to investigate the stakes of differentiating his project from the work of Aleister Crowley. ​ This will take place in the second live event space The Edge (a space to walk the razor’s edge of contemporary thought and practice) on Monday January 15th 2024 / 6pm CET (for an intro conversation, see: Xagick with Layman Pascal and Owen Cox). ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

The third event this month will focus on Alenka Zupančič's recently published article in Theory Underground's Underground Theory anthology: Is Sex Passé? with Alenka Zupančič herself. ​ Zupančič's work has been a huge and central influence for my work over the past 5+ years (with the What Is Sex? series launching 5 years ago, as well as the What Is Sex? course in collaboration with David McKerracher and Theory Underground launching last year). ​ Zupančič brings sex back to fundamental questions of ontology and not just epistemology. ​ She also makes contradiction central over identity. ​ Both are important turns in the academic or theoretical investigation of sex, and may significantly impact and influence general discourse about topics at the intersection of sex and gender (epistemological questions) or sex and identity (metaphysical questions). ​ In our session this month we hope to focus on the relation between sex, sublimation and enjoyment, as well as the relation between sex, civilisation and culture more generally. ​ This will take place in the third live event space Thought Lab (a space to learn and think with a thought leader about our shared becoming) on Monday January 22nd 2024 / 6pm CET (for a discussion earlier in 2023 between myself, David McKerracher and Alenka Zupančič, see: Alenka Zupančič on Sex and Gender). ​

Finally, the fourth event this month will focus on sex and psychotherapy with psychotherapist Eliot Rosenstock. ​ Eliot Rosenstock and I have been loosely connected in the larger liminal web space for a few years, and he also participated in the Science of Logic course in early 2023, but only had a chance to meet up and connect directly a few months ago. ​ I have always appreciated the way Eliot was attempting to think about psychotherapy in the context of the Žižekian moment of philosophy, see specifically his book Žižek in the Clinic. ​ I think that Eliot will be a great leader for our fourth and final session this month, Real Talk, because as a psychotherapist he has the experience of holding space for difficult and unconventional forms of speech. ​ This will take place in the fourth live event space Real Talk (a space for free association and full speech) on Sunday January 28th 2024 / 6pm CET. ​

I hope that there is much more experimentation to come in 2024. ​ The live event space may change a lot, or it may continue to hold this structure with some additions and extensions that are born from the fires of trial and error. ​ Does this sound like an environment where you want to learn and build connections in the new year? ​ If so, you can learn more or sign up for January at the link below:

Schedule (all start times 6pm CET):

Notes: becoming a member of the live event space does not only get you access to four live events monthly, but also gets you access to a private forum, office hours (coming soon), community publications, discounts on recorded courses, permanent early bird pricing on future courses, and priority access to apply for retreats. ​ Again, as suggested above, as the live event space evolves, more dimensions will inevitably become available to members. ​ I hope you join us for what promises to be a fascinating new experiment at Philosophy Portal.