Reading Lacan’s Aecrits: From "Signification Of The Phallus" To "Science And Truth"

The Écrits was Jacques Lacan’s single most important text, a landmark in psychoanalysis which epitomized his aim of returning to Freud via structural linguistics, philosophy and literature. Reading Lacan’s Écrits is the first extensive set of commentaries on the complete edition of Lacan’s Écrits to be published in English. An invaluable document in the history of psychoanalysis, and one of the most challenging intellectual works of the twentieth century, Lacan’s Écrits still today begs the interpretative engagement of clinicians, scholars, philosophers and cultural theorists. The three volumes of Reading Lacan’s Écrits offer just this: a series of systematic paragraph-by-paragraph commentaries – by some of the world’s most renowned Lacanian analysts and scholars – on the complete edition of the Écrits, inclusive of lesser known articles such as ‘Kant with Sade’, ‘The Youth of Gide’, ‘Science and Truth’, ‘Presentation on Transference’ and ‘Beyond the "Reality Principle". The originality and importance of Lacan’s Écrits to psychoanalysis and intellectual history is matched only by the text’s notorious inaccessibility. Reading Lacan’s Écrits is an indispensable companion piece and reference-text for clinicians and scholars exploring Lacan's magnum opus. Not only does it contextualize, explain and interrogate Lacan's arguments, it provides multiple interpretative routes through this most labyrinthine of texts. Reading Lacan’s Écrits provides an incisive and accessible companion for psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists in training and in practice, as well as philosophers, cultural theorists and literary, social science and humanities researchers who wish to draw upon Lacan’s pivotal work. Cover 1 Half Title 4 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Table of Contents 10 Figures 12 Contributors 13 Acknowledgements 15 Jacques Lacan’s seminars 16 Introduction to ‘Reading the Écrits’: La trahison de l’écriture 18 References 22 1 The Signification of the Phallus 24 Context 24 Commentaries on the text 29 References 41 2 In Memory of Ernest Jones: On His Theory of Symbolism 44 Context 44 Commentaries on the text 47 Conclusion 66 Notes 67 References 67 3 On an Ex Post Facto Syllabary 69 Context 69 Commentaries on the text 71 Notes 85 References 88 4 Some Guiding Remarks for a Convention on Female Sexuality 89 Context 89 Commentaries on the text 92 “The Shine [Éclat] of Absences”: The ‘Object’ and ‘the Object Relation’ 92 Misrecognitions and biases: castration and phallic non-equivalence 98 Frigidity and feminine subjective structure 100 Female homosexuality and ideal love 104 Female sexuality and society 106 Conclusion 108 Notes 111 Bibliography 113 5 The Youth of Gide, or the Letter and Desire 115 Context 115 Commentaries on the text 123 Conclusion 129 Notes 132 References 132 6 Kant with Sade 133 Context 133 Commentaries on the text 137 Section 1 137 Section 2 140 Section 3 144 Section 4 146 Section 5 150 Section 6 152 Section 7 158 Section 8 160 Section 9 164 Section 10 168 Section 11 170 Sections 12–13 172 Section 14 174 Section 15 177 Conclusion 181 Notes 183 References 186 7 The Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire in the Freudian Unconscious 191 Context 191 Commentary on the text 192 Analytical praxis 192 Freud’s Copernican turn 194 The split subject of the unconscious 196 Drive and revolution 199 The first graph of desire 201 Circular retroactivity 205 To feign feigning 207 The second graph of desire 208 Master and slave 212 The defiles of the signifier 214 Need, demand, desire 215 From anxiety to desire 217 Desire is the other’s desire 219 Chè vuoi? 220 The third graph of desire 221 The subversion of the subject 223 The complete graph of desire 223 The subject as object of the drive 226 From S(.) to jouissance... 227 ... and castration 229 The psychopathological positions of the subject of the unconscious 233 The inverse scale of the law of desire 239 Conclusion 240 Notes 241 Bibliography 245 8 Position of the Unconscious 247 Context 247 From the ‘Rome Discourse’ (1953) to ‘Position de l’inconscient’ (1966) 247 The Bonneval Colloquium 249 Commentaries on the text 251 First section (703–712) 251 The unfreudian Unconscious (703–708, 2) 251 Subject and time (708, 3–709, 3) 254 Teaching psychoanalysis against identification (709, 4–710, 7) 255 “To confirm the function of this point of lack” (710, 8–711, 1) 256 Topology of the Unconscious: “An entrance one can only reach just as it closes” (711, 2–711, 7) 257 Temporality of the unconscious: ‘a circular, albeit nonreciprocal articulation’ (711, 8–712, 7) 258 Second section. The causation of the subject: alienation (712, 8–714, 5) 260 Third section. The causation of the subject: separation (714, 6–719, 6) 262 Fourth section. Sexuality between the two sides of the gap (719, 7–721, 2) 266 Fifth section. Leaving Bonneval (721, 3–6) 267 Between Signifier and Drive: Position of the Unconscious 268 Conclusion 268 (1): The Unconscious as an ever-failing border process 268 (2): Causality and determination 269 (3): A circular but non-reciprocal dialectic 274 (4): Science and psychoanalysis 275 Notes 276 References 279 9 On Freud’s “Trieb” and the Psychoanalyst’s Desire 282 Context 282 Commentaries on the text 283 Notes 289 References 289 10 Science and Truth 291 Context 291 Commentary on the text 292 Concluding remarks 327 References 328 11 Metaphor of the Subject 331 Context 331 Commentaries on the text 334 Notes 343 Acknowledgments 344 References 344 Index 345 The aEcrits was Jacques Lacan's single most important text, a landmark in psychoanalysis which epitomized his aim of returning to Freud via structural linguistics, philosophy and literature. Reading Lacan's aEcrits is the first extensive set of commentaries on the complete edition of Lacan's aEcrits to be published in English. An invaluable document in the history of psychoanalysis, and one of the most challenging intellectual works of the twentieth century, Lacan's aEcrits still today begs the interpretative engagement of clinicians, scholars, philosophers and cultural theorists. The three volumes of Reading Lacan's aEcrits offer just this: a series of systematic paragraph-by-paragraph commentaries - by some of the world's most renowned Lacanian analysts and scholars - on the complete edition of the aEcrits, inclusive of lesser known articles such as 'Kant with Sade', 'The Youth of Gide', 'Science and Truth', 'Presentation on Transference' and 'Beyond the "Reality Principle". The originality and importance of Lacan's aEcrits to psychoanalysis and intellectual history is matched only by the text's notorious inaccessibility. Reading Lacan's aEcrits is an indispensable companion piece and reference-text for clinicians and scholars exploring Lacan's magnum opus. Not only does it contextualize, explain and interrogate Lacan's arguments, it provides multiple interpretative routes through this most labyrinthine of texts. Reading Lacan's aEcrits provides an incisive and accessible companion for psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists in training and in practice, as well as philosophers, cultural theorists and literary, social science and humanities researchers who wish to draw upon Lacan's pivotal work