Lacanian landscapes: Psychoanalysis, geography, and the environment

Geography Department Research Seminars Spring 2024, University of Manchester, 13 March 2024

This talk sets out to explore what psychoanalysis brings to geographical debates about the environment and the ecological crisis. To do so, the talk will start by giving a broader introduction to the field of psychoanalytic geographies. Over the past two decades, geographers and other researchers have drawn on various psychoanalytic concepts to consider the interrelationships between space, psyche, and society. Despite the rise of Lacanian approaches in human geography and other cognate fields of study, few studies directly engage the works of Jacques Lacan to further understand environmental issues. The talk seeks to address this lacuna by examining the fantasmatic dimensions of the environment, the gaze of nature, and the enjoyment of climate change. Through this, the talk offers alternative theorizations and new problematizations of some well-established suppositions in human geography and further develops the implications of a Lacanian approach to the ecological crisis.

More information
https://events.manchester.ac.uk/event/event:m2pw-lrz1gady-r707eb/lacanian-landscapes-psychoanalysis-geography-and-the-environment