Lacan

About this book

The French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) is a uniquely complex writer and the originator of an especially unsettling view of the human subject. But the singularity of Lacans achievement has been understated by many of his critics. Often he is seen merely as a figure famous for being famous--an essential reference point in structuralist and poststructuralist debate--rather than as a theorist whose writings demand and reward detailed scrutiny. Malcolm Bowie traces the development of Lacans ideas over the fifty-year span of his writing and teaching career. The primary focus is on the fascinating mutations in Lacans interpretation of Freud. Bowie reinserts the celebrated slogans--"The unconscious is the discourse of the Other " "The unconscious is structured like a language " and so forth--into the history of Lacans thinking and pinpoints the paradoxes and anomalies that mark his account of human sexuality. This book provides a firm basis for the critical evaluation of Lacans ideas and the rhetoric in which they are embedded; it is based on a close reading of Lacans original texts but presupposes no knowledge of French in the reader. Although Bowie is sharply critical of Lacan on several major analytic questions he argues that Lacan is the only psychoanalyst after Freud whose intellectual achievement is seriously comparable to Freuds own. Lacan provides the ideal starting point for any exploration of the work of this formidable thinker.