STRUCTURE

Lacanian Compass is a group dedicated to the development and promotion of the Lacanian orientation of psychoanalysis in the United States, psychoanalysis as first described by Sigmund Freud and elaborated by Jacques Lacan and Jacques-Alain Miller.

Lacanian Compass is an associated group of the New Lacanian School (NLS) and our programs are in coordination with the World Association of Psychoanalysis (WAP). Activities of Lacanian Compass include weekly seminars, Clinical Study Days (CSD), virtual seminars, the LC Express journal, and cartels.

Since its creation, the Lacanian Compass has been organized through the work of its Council: Maria Cristina Aguirre (New York, NY), Juan Felipe Arango (Miami, FL), Thomas Svolos (Omaha, NE), Karina Tenenbaum (Miami, FL), and Alicia Arenas (Miami, FL).

Since April 3rd, 2022, two new members have joined the current Council: Alexandre Stevens (NLS President) and Daniel Roy (NLS Vice President).

Also, a permutation has been performed and a new instance of an Executive Board has been created to work together with the Council. Its composition is as follows:

President: Juan Felipe Arango (Miami, FL)
Secretary: Cyrus Saint Amand Poliakoff (New York, NY)
Treasurer: Liliana Kruszel (Miami, FL)
Media Coordinator: Jose Armando Garcia (Miami, FL)
Cartel Delegate: Jeff Erbe (Bridgeport, CT & New York, NY)
Members Meeting Coordinator: Isolda Alvarez (Miami, FL)
Clinical Seminar Coordinator: Cristina Gonzalez (Miami, FL)
Reading Seminar Coordinator: Nancy Gillespie (New York, NY)

HISTORY

In 2000, before the signifier “Lacanian Compass” came into being, Maria Cristina Aguirre established the weekly seminar group known as the New York Freud Lacan Analytic Group (NYFLAG) in New York City. In 1997, Alicia Arenas had started the Lacanian Orientation Group of South Florida (L.O.G.O.S.) in Miami, Florida, which became the Miami site of the Nueva Escuela Lacaniana (NEL). This group was dissolved in 2017 in favor of the Lacanian Compass project and the future affiliation to the New Lacanian School. In 1999, Thomas Svolos began teaching in Omaha, NE, a seminar that he titled “The Psychoanalytic Wager.”  The activities in Omaha were later organized under the name Circle for the Lacanian Orientation in Omaha (CLOO).  All three of these seminar groups have operated continuously over the past 17 years reading the works of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Jacques-Alain Miller and others in the Freudian Field.

Lacanian Compass was first used to name our online publication, which began in 2004, destined to join together the activities of members of the World Association of Psychoanalysis (WAP) from different parts of the US. The journal has since become LC Express, of which there are three volumes, and many issues.

From 2000 to 2008, the Lacanian Compass held the ‘Seminars of the Freudian Field’, 15 events hosted semi-annually featuring Marie-Hélène Brousse, Pierre-Gilles Guéguen, Jean-Pierre Klotz, Alexandre Stevens, and Vicente Palomera.

Our annual conference series is the Clinical Study Days (CSD), which started in 2005 in New York City and was titled “The Body in Psychoanalysis,” with the participation of analyst member of the WAP, Vicente Palomera. By that time the Lacanian Compass Council included Maria Cristina Aguirre, Alicia Arenas, and Tom Svolos. Since 2005, there have been 10 CSD conferences, and they have been held in New York, Miami, and Omaha.

In Houston, since 2006, Carmen Navarro-Nino organized the activities of six Lacanian Cartels, registered with Lacanian Compass and NEL Miami. The Houston group, formerly known as the Houston Freudian Field Library, produced the online magazine, “Houston Open Sky” (HOS), a bilingual publication in English-Spanish, which presents the final achievements of their cartels.

Beginning in 2010, Pierre-Gilles Guéguen was officially appointed as delegate of the WAP in the US by Leonardo Gorostiza, then President of the WAP. Pierre-Gilles has been a vital participant in the activities of Lacanian Compass and instrumental through his support and promotion of our work.

In 2011, during the fifth CSD with Vincente Palomera and Pierre-Gilles Guéguen, the signifier Lacanian Compass came to represent our group, and two members from Miami joined the Council: Karina Tenenbaum and Juan Felipe Arango.

In September 2016, Lacanian Compass incorporated as a non-profit organization in the US, and in April 2017 we became an associated group of the New Lacanian School (NLS).

Our work remains focused on the development and elaboration of the Lacanian Orientation in the US.