Reading Lacan’s Écrits: From ‘Signification of the Phallus’ to ‘Metaphor of the Subject’

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 Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Figures Contributors Acknowledgements Jacques Lacan’s seminars Introduction to ‘Reading the Écrits’: La trahison de l’écriture References 1 The Signification of the Phallus Context Commentaries on the text References 2 In Memory of Ernest Jones: On His Theory of Symbolism Context Commentaries on the text Conclusion Notes References 3 On an Ex Post Facto Syllabary Context Commentaries on the text Notes References 4 Some Guiding Remarks for a Convention on Female Sexuality Context Commentaries on the text “The Shine [Éclat] of Absences”: The ‘Object’ and ‘the Object Relation’ Misrecognitions and biases: castration and phallic non-equivalence Frigidity and feminine subjective structure Female homosexuality and ideal love Female sexuality and society Conclusion Notes Bibliography 5 The Youth of Gide, or the Letter and Desire Context Commentaries on the text Conclusion Notes References 6 Kant with Sade Context Commentaries on the text Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 Section 6 Section 7 Section 8 Section 9 Section 10 Section 11 Sections 12–13 Section 14 Section 15 Conclusion Notes References 7 The Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire in the Freudian Unconscious Context Commentary on the text Analytical praxis Freud’s Copernican turn The split subject of the unconscious Drive and revolution The first graph of desire Circular retroactivity To feign feigning The second graph of desire Master and slave The defiles of the signifier Need, demand, desire From anxiety to desire Desire is the other’s desire Chè vuoi? The third graph of desire The subversion of the subject The complete graph of desire The subject as object of the drive From S(.) to jouissance... ... and castration The psychopathological positions of the subject of the unconscious The inverse scale of the law of desire Conclusion Notes Bibliography 8 Position of the Unconscious Context From the ‘Rome Discourse’ (1953) to ‘Position de l’inconscient’ (1966) The Bonneval Colloquium Commentaries on the text First section (703–712) The unfreudian Unconscious (703–708, 2) Subject and time (708, 3–709, 3) Teaching psychoanalysis against identification (709, 4–710, 7) “To confirm the function of this point of lack” (710, 8–711, 1) Topology of the Unconscious: “An entrance one can only reach just as it closes” (711, 2–711, 7) Temporality of the unconscious: ‘a circular, albeit nonreciprocal articulation’ (711, 8–712, 7) Second section. The causation of the subject: alienation (712, 8–714, 5) Third section. The causation of the subject: separation (714, 6–719, 6) Fourth section. Sexuality between the two sides of the gap (719, 7–721, 2) Fifth section. Leaving Bonneval (721, 3–6) Between Signifier and Drive: Position of the Unconscious Conclusion (1): The Unconscious as an ever-failing border process (2): Causality and determination (3): A circular but non-reciprocal dialectic (4): Science and psychoanalysis Notes References 9 On Freud’s “Trieb” and the Psychoanalyst’s Desire Context Commentaries on the text Notes References 10 Science and Truth Context Commentary on the text Concluding remarks References 11 Metaphor of the Subject Context Commentaries on the text Notes Acknowledgments References Index