Disavowal, Science and Subjectivity: A Conversation with Alenka Zupancic
When:
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Venue:
Online
Zupancic's recent work, Disavowal (2024) and "Freud, the Unconscious and Artificial Intelligence" (2026), engages questions central to science and technology debates from a Lacanian psychoanalytic perspective. Where other disciplines concerned with science and technology have debated "post-truth," Zupancic asks what ideological function the attack on science serves, and what structural reality is concealed in the process. Her account of disavowal reframes the familiar paradox that we collectively acknowledge crises while sustaining them: knowledge itself becomes an instrument of inaction. Her work on AI proposes that large language models function as an externalised unconscious without a subject, raising questions about subjectivity, hallucination, and political manipulation that cut across both fields.
This session is co-produced by the Centre for Psychosocial Research, and ideocies.
Ideocies is a London-based interdisciplinary community, that explores these themes, asking what psychoanalysis can bring to debates on science and technology, and what it might learn in return. Learn more here: https://www.ideocies.org
Contact name: Elena Gkivisi
Speakers-
Alenka Zupancic
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Alenka Zupancic is a Slovenian philosopher and one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Lacanian thought. Alongside Slavoj Žižek and Mladen Dolar, she is a key member of the Ljubljana School of Psychoanalysis. She is a Principal Research Associate at the Institute of Philosophy, ZRC SAZU (Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts) and Professor at the European Graduate School. Her work moves between psychoanalysis, German idealism, Nietzsche, ethics, comedy, and sexuality. Her books have been widely translated and have shaped debates across philosophy, political theory, and cultural criticism. She was awarded the Udine Filosofia Prize in 2024 for her contributions to philosophy.
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