The writing of the event: the clinical fragment as transmission in Psychoanalysis

Abstract

This article investigates the clinical fragment as a unique method for research and transmission in Psychoanalysis, articulating clinical practice with Lacanian-oriented psychoanalytic theory. Drawing on the experience of the Desembola na Ideia project, the article aims to demonstrate how the writing of an event — defined as the irruption of singularities in clinical practice — can serve as a means to transmit the Real of the analytical experience. The central research problem is to explore how the clinical fragment can be legitimized and utilized as a research methodology, both in academic settings and within the psychoanalytic community. The text discusses this form of writing not as a mere illustration, but as a manifestation that emerges from the contingency of the clinical experience. The methodology adopted combines theoretical-conceptual research with clinical practice, based on material from the clinical and artistic work developed within Desembola na Ideia. It concludes that the clinical fragment, as the writing of an event, constitutes a privileged way to formalize and transmit the effect of the Real in analytic practice. Therefore, it supports a specific methodology for research in Psychoanalysis. Ultimately, this method allows Psychoanalysis to reinvent itself and to produce a mode of research that values the singularity of each case, contributing to the theoretical advancement of the field.