ORNICAR?

The journal Ornicar? was founded in January 1975 by Jacques-Alain Miller, Jacques Lacan's son-in-law. Subtitled Bulletin périodique du champ Freudien (Journal of the Freudian field), Ornicar? "was both the home and the organ of the Young Turks" (Miller, 1984). Lacan supported it against the opposition of the elder members of theÉcole Freudienne de Paris (Freudian School of Paris). Ornicar? is also the journal of the Department of the Freudian Field at the University of Vincennes, which was founded by Serge Leclaire in 1968 and was led and directed by Lacan and Miller from 1970.

From the start, Miller, who was entrusted with the transcription of Lacan's seminar, used Ornicar? as a venue for publishing seminar sessions. Published seminars include R.S.I. (The real, the symbolic, and the imaginary; 1974-1975) in nos. 2-5; Le Sinthome (The symptom; 1975-1976) in nos. 6-11; L'une-bévue (A blunder; 1976-1977) in nos. 12-18; and the final seminar, Dissolution (1980) in nos. 20-23. With the publication in no. 9 of a talk that Lacan delivered on January 5, 1977, "The Inauguration of the Clinical Program," Ornicar? became a vehicle for elaborating Lacan's clinical technique, which was developed and taught outside of the École Freudienne at Vincennes.

From January 1975 to June 1989, twenty-eight issues of Ornicar? were published under Miller's editorship. Simultaneously, sixty-three issues of Analytica, a research journal for Freudian studies, were also published. These issues included reprints of psychiatric classics and essays on contemporary clinical practice.

After Lacan's death in 1981, Miller began to publish some of Lacan's unpublished writings in Ornicar? (nos. 24-25), starting with the seven lectures on Hamlet from seminar 6, Le désir et son interprétation (Desire and its interpretation).

Laurence Bataille, the daughter of Sylvia Lacan and Georges Bataille and the stepdaughter of Lacan, acted as director of the publication from 1976 to 1978 and helped to edit the journal before eventually withdrawing.

In 1998, starting with no. 49, the journal got a new lease on life under the direction of Miller.

Jacques SÉdat

See also: École Freudienne de Paris (Freudian school of Paris); France.

Bibliography

Miller, Jacques-Alain. (1984). Editorial. Ornicar? 28.