The Unconscious as Space

Anca Carrington is a London-based psychoanalyst with a particular interest in Lacanian analysis, and an associate member of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research. In her previous career she worked in spatial analysis and remains interested in the application of mathematical thinking to the field of psychoanalysis.

Preface

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1. Introduction

2. The Freudian and post-Freudian unconscious as spatiality

2.1. Freud's maps

2.2 Post-Freudian emphasis

PART II: THE UNCONSCIOUS AS INACCESSIBLE SPACE

3. The unconscious as infinity and the possibility of incompleteness

3.1. Counting, recurrence and the spaces in between

3.2. From numbers to posited dimensions

3.3. Infinity and incompleteness in the unconscious

3.4. The unconscious as inaccessible space between points of encounter

4. The rigour of spatial dimensions – of shadows and recurrences

4.1 Flatland and beyond

4.2. From higher to lower dimensions: projection

4.3. From lower to higher dimensions: repetition

4.4. Spatial dimensions in psychoanalysis

5. The unconscious as inaccessible and the exclusivity of the fourth dimension

5.1. Hyperspace – a primer

5.2. The unconscious as four-dimensional space

5.3. Dimensions in the clinic

5.4. No dimensions and the inscription of impossibility

PART III: THE UNCONSCIOUS AS DOMAIN OF IMPOSSIBILITY

6. Structures of the impossible

6.1 Mathematical representations of impossibility

6.2 Holes and the unconscious

6.3 The Oedipus complex as prohibition veiling impossibility

6.4 Negations of impossibility

7. The unconscious as topological space

7.1 Topology – a primer

7.2 Holes and the unconscious, revisited

7.4 Embedded or not – back to dimensions

8. The unconscious as knots

8.1 Knots – a primer

8.2 Knots as structure and pathways through language

8.3 Knots in the clinic

8.4 Knots and dimensions

PART IV: CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

9. The spatial unconscious and the clinic of psychic structures

9.1. The recurrence of suffering

9.2 Identification and subjectivity

9.3 Dimensions in the clinic, revisited

10. Clinical implications

10.1 Topology in the clinic

10.2. Clinical illustration

10.3 Interpretation, the cut and the analytic act

11. Concluding comments