Contact

Sinthome
Lacanian School
of Psychoanalysis

I. CONTACT

I. KONTAKT

Please contact us by e-mail:

Address:

Sinthome – Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis
Foksal 3/5 St., 00-366 Warsaw

The Association is registered in the District Court for the capital city of Warsaw, 12th Commercial Division of the National Court Register under the number:

KRS:
0000306502

NIP:
5252427692

Account number at ING Bank Śląski:
49 1050 1025 1000 0090 3057 0585

II. SUPPORT

II. WSPARCIE

Sinthome is an independent, anti-totalitarian, and not-for-profit association financed entirely by the contributions and work of our Members and voluntary contributions from the outside, to which I strongly encourage you here.

Each support, especially those of a cyclical nature, is an opportunity for us to manage the resources of our association more effectively and allows us to focus on the substantive activities of the School.

We allocate the entire surplus for statutory purposes. Thanks to it, we can conduct analyses, supervision, and training for people in a difficult financial situation, maintain the infrastructure necessary to spread psychoanalysis, and say what we hear and make that voice audible!

We sincerely believe that there is no freedom of speech without freedom of expression, which has been at the heart of psychoanalysis since Freud.

It is crucial today when we observe an apparent increase in attacks aimed at denying or completely excluding the function of the Father Name, of which the idea of "cancel culture" is the best example. It is in it that Freud's Culture as a source of suffering finds its literal interpretation. Discourses such as this fail to recognize the structuring role of the Other and, most often, reject the past without delving into a complex historical context. Not wanting to know anything about it, they censor and repress all manifestations of the Dziadocena, thus contributing to the perpetuation of the compulsion to repeat and, consequently, to the impossibility of creating a metaphor and sustaining the desire that, as Lacan says, is the metonymy of [our] being.

On the other hand, dissatisfaction expressed by "awakened" is taken care of by well-known discourses aimed at sealing once and for all the lack of the subject by appealing either to religion or science as the place of the ABSOLUTE OTHER. The Other without lack and desire - by substituting in its place purely imaginary identifications, which with each new classification of mental disorders, grow like mushrooms after rain and, like them, temporarily hallucinate meaning. The proliferation of psychotherapy with its NICE recommendations, which can be reduced to the formula "something for everyone," is no exception.

This, not by chance, brings us to the third side of the argument, which is the capitalist discourse, with its arbitrary objects of jouissance and enjoyment command, which, being an absolute glutton, absorbs the discourses mentioned above (religion being the exception) in response producing NOTHING, smelling shit, resulting in a clinic a contemporary symptom, in which the subject's opposition to being bracketed is so painfully expressed.

Do we cease arms? No, we are where our analyzers are, and we count on your support. Not-for-profit.

Thomas Dubis
Chairman of the Board

BANK TRANSFER DETAILS

Receiver
SINTHOME – SZKOŁA PSYCHOANALIZY LACANOWSKIEJ

Bank Account nr
49 1050 1025 1000 0090 3057 0585

Title
DONATION

III. Q&A

II. Q&A

What is this sinthome?

Sinthome [sintom] is a French neologism coined by Lacan, formed by combining two significant words: symptôme (symptom) and the name of Saint Thomas, which is "Saint Thomas" in French.

For a neurotic, it refers to the subject's style of relating to the object of desire, the fundamental lack, and their approach to castration and the Other. For a psychotic, it serves as a way to prevent psychotic disorganization; it's a substitute for the ego.

It's a way of organizing one's life, a style that operates in the background, often unknown to the individual. It's what one leans on but is unaware of its existence. It's only when one tries to put an end to it, or life forces something to end that everything starts to crumble.

Sinthome is a way to make life less tormenting.

Why is the length of each session different every time? What purpose do short sessions serve, and why should someone pay the same amount without knowing what to expect?

We hope that all sessions are short. This would mean that the work is progressing, and in each meeting, something from the analysand's unconscious emerges or, better to say, "has been grasped." The analysand doesn't pay for the analyst's time. The meeting is the fee for analysis. So, the fee remains the same even if the session extends to two or three hours. Being in the right place at the right time is how the logic of the decisive moment operates. This doesn't mean that one shouldn't assist luck... if the session's length is leading to an impasse, it must be cut!

→ METHOD

How long does psychoanalysis last, and why is it so lengthy?

Psychoanalysis can span from several years, under very favorable conditions, to a lifetime, in cases where it's the only possible path. The duration of psychoanalysis is directly linked to the investment we have made in our symptoms, and the time of change depends on various factors, including the analyst's own level of analysis and the frequency of sessions. Many have attempted shortcuts in analysis, but no one has succeeded. Instead, ephemeral approaches emerged, such as group psychoanalysis, short-term dynamic psychotherapy, and more.

I'm considering Gestalt therapy; why am I mistaken?

Mistakes, slips of the tongue, Freudian slips, and other unconscious creations are the daily bread of analysis, often chosen as a last resort. This is a result of the prevailing ideology of evaluation and prioritizing procedures over ethics. When other forms of assistance have failed and the symptom, with its persistence, continues to hinder living, this is most often the reason for seeking the analyst's office. But not before then.

Why is your association not affiliated with any international society?

Our experiences with foreign organizations prior to the establishment of the association (WAP/AMP) and later with EPFCL always encountered the same obstacles. The possibility of conducting analyses by Poles and for Poles, as well as training future generations of analysts. The number of the latter with the title AE (Analyst of the School) or AME (Analyst Member of the School), or rather their absence, despite thirty years of Lacanian psychoanalysis on Polish soil and the functioning of three affiliated associations by foreign Schools, speaks volumes about the trust that French analysts have in the Polish community. The split of our association in 2010 also revolved around this issue and was decisive for us – from that moment on, we decided to work independently. Like any true choice faced by a subject, this choice became a necessity for us. In this sense – as Lacan would say – we are the same as we have always been concerning the cause of the Polish School of psychoanalysis. However, no analyst works in a vacuum. Therefore, we currently informally cooperate with everyone (unaffiliated analysts and members of other Schools) who share our conviction that the source code of psychoanalysis is and must remain open, regardless of blood ties and the path of its inheritance.

→ HISTORY

Why is it so difficult to understand anything from these Lacanian texts?

Just as often as we say words carry meaning, we forget that language is a source of misunderstandings. This is why Lacan himself had no aspiration to be understood. He wanted to be read, just like poetry is read, and poetry is subject to interpretation. Thus, he evaded being a master of knowledge, an Other not crossed out, while becoming an object in the hands of those he worked for.

What to expect, and what is the purpose of psychoanalysis since it's not a form of psychotherapy?

Since the time of Freud, psychoanalysis does not primarily aim to remove symptoms. Freud's goal for analysis was modest: to transform psychotic suffering into ordinary unhappiness. This was a candid approach. If it were not for Lacan's discovery that the unconscious is structured like "a certain kind of language," with its consequent implications for practice, we could stop here.

→ METHOD

Why do you write "Szkoła" (School) with a capital letter?

Due to its symbolic function, distinguishing it from the school building itself, which, even if it does occupy a physical space, is more important for its existence in the place of the subject assumed to know. This is an interesting question, and perhaps we are not radical enough in this matter. The correct notation (following Lacanian algebra) might be as follows: "Szkoła" (School), due to the lack inscribed in it, its non-wholeness, situating it on the side of the feminine. However, practical considerations cannot be forgotten. How to write this in a messenger...