Lacanian
Foothold
A Psychoanalytic Resource Group
Jacques Lacan has enjoyed popularity among academics in the US and among psychoanalysts in the rest of the world but he is rarely taught in graduate or post graduate programs for social workers, psychologists or psychiatrists in North America. Although there are Lacanian “footholds” in most North American graduate and post graduate programs that train mental health clinicians, most of them are tiny and isolated from one another. Lacanian Foothold was started to link these clinicians and clinicians- in- training together.
Lacanian Foothold was started by Barbara Tholfsen as a resource group on Facebook and Linkedin for New York area psychoanalysts and psychoanalysts- in- training. Because there was interest from all over the world the scope of the group widened. Now there are more than 4.000 people connected on Facebook and LinkedIn. Some are affiliated with Gifric, and some with NLS, Apres Coup or APW; Some prefer Miller and some like Zizek, Soler, Fink or Badiou; Some like the early Lacan some the late Lacan; Some are part of a closed set. some an open set. Lacanian Foothold has tried to remain unaffiliated.
Barbara Tholfsen LCSW has been in private practice in Croton on Hudson since 1995 where she sees adults, children, couples and supervisees. She teaches Freud’s Clinical Cases at the Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. She has presented papers on Lacanian Psychoanalysis at multiple conferences in North America.