RECOMMENDED READING

Lacan’s own writing is difficult to study on one’s own. It might help to start by first reading Freud, which is far easier. If you can read the original German you will save yourself many unnecessary contradictions that are forced on English readers by systematic mistranslations. A good place to start is Freud’s ‘Introductory Lectures to Psychoanalysis’ in the Pelican Freud Library, not the New Introductory Lectures. Having read some Freud, try some early Lacan, such as Book I and Book II of his Seminars, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, and translated by Forrester, Cambridge University Press, 1988. Good companions at this time would be Bruce Fink’s ‘The Lacanian Subject’ published by Princeton, 1995, Seminars 1 and 2, ed Fink et al, published by SUNY, 1995 and Dylan Evan’s ‘An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis’, Routledge (1996). ‘Using Lacanian Clinical Technique: An Introduction’ Press for the Habilitation of Psychoanalysis (2002) Philip Hill assumes no knowledge.

Do not start off with Lacan’s ‘Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis’ unless you are very determined; this difficult work was produced towards the end of his career.

This bibliography generally follows the material in the chapters of this book:

CHAPTER ONE

The Image and the Imaginary
See ‘The Topic of the Imaginary’ in: ‘The Seminar of Jacques Lacan’, Book I, edited Jacques-Alain Miller, translated Forrester, Cambridge University Press, 1988.

‘The Mirror Stage As Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience’, and ‘Aggressivity in Psychoanalysis’, by Lacan in ‘Ecrits’, translated Sheridan, Tavistock/Routledge 1977.

Socrates
‘The Last Days of Socrates’, Plato, Penguin Classics, is sometimes slow, but often riveting.

Ego Psychology
Hartmann, H. ‘Psychoanalysis, Scientific Method and Philosophy’, in ‘Psychoanalysis, Scientific Method and Philosophy, a Symposium’ edited by Hook, S. 1959. Almost any popular American book on ‘therapy’ has large doses of Ego Psychology in it.

CHAPTER TWO

Freud’s ‘Psychopathology of Everyday Life’, is easy to read, and almost a laugh a page. It illustrates his theory of slips of the tongue and bungled actions.

The symbolic is a very general theme developed by Lacan from the 1950’s onwards. One of Lacan’s more accessible texts can be found in the section ‘Speech in the Transference’ in ‘The Seminar of Jacques Lacan’, Book I, edited Jacques-Alain Miller, translated Forrester, Cambridge University Press, 1988.

‘The Function and Field of Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis’, and ‘The Agency: of the Letter or Reason since Freud’, are both difficult, and are in ‘Ecrits’, translated Sheridan, Tavistock/Routledge 1977.

CHAPTER THREE

‘The real’ is an idea developed throughout Lacan’s later work. Freud’s theory of trauma can be found in his ‘Introductory Lectures to Psychoanalysis’, under ‘Fixation to Traumas’, Pelican Freud Library Number 1.

Mathematics has become the main arena in which ‘the real’ —in Lacan’s sense— is being formalised. See for instance the very readable: ‘Mathematics, The Loss of Certainty’ by Morris Kline, New York, Oxford University Press, 1980.

CHAPTER FOUR

Freud occasionally confuses the penis with the phallus. His account of the phallus, can be found in an essay mistranslated as ‘On Transformations of Instinct as Exemplified in Anal Eroticism’: it should be called ‘On Transformations of Drive as Exemplified in Anal Eroticism’, and is to be found in ‘On Sexuality’, Pelican Freud Library Number 7. Lacan’s difficult theory of the phallus is in ‘The Signification of the Phallus’ in ‘Ecrits’, translated Sheridan, Tavistock/Routledge 1977.

Applications of Lacan’s ideas to ideology can be found in ‘The Sublime Object of Ideology’, by Slavoj Zizek, Verso, 1993.

CHAPTER FIVE

Jouissance, the symptom, fantasy and the object or cause of desire are discussed throughout Lacan‘s later work. A difficult text on this theme is the chapter ‘The Paradoxes of Jouissance’ in ‘The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan’, edited Jacques-Aloin Miller, translated Porter, Routledge, 1992.

CHAPTER SIX

For a clear introduction to discourse see Paul Verhaeghe’s article ‘From Impossibility to Inability: Lacan’s Theory of the Four Discourses’, in an excellent journal called ‘The Letter’, Spring, 1995. See also Verhaeghe’s ‘Does The Woman Exist?’ by Rebus Press, London, 1996. Both of these are available from the specialist psychoanalysis bookseller ‘Rathbone Books’, 76 Haverstock Hill, London, NW3 2BD, telephone 0171 267 2848. Internet sales at Rathbook.demon.co.uk.

CHAPTER SEVEN

A good place to start on this subject, is Freud’s ‘On Psychopathology’, Pelican Freud Library Number 10. Freud’s famous obsessional case of ‘The Rotman’ can be found in Case Histories II, Volume 9 of the Pelican Freud Library. Freud’s hysterics are in Pelican Freud Library Number 1.

CHAPTER EIGHT

See Freud’s ‘On Psychopathology’, Pelican Freud Library Number 10, and Freud’s detailed analysis of a psychotic ‘Schreber’, is Number 9. Lacan’s seminar ‘Psychosis’ has been translated, and published by Routledge. Lacan’s ‘Introduction to the Names-of-the-Father Seminar’ was published in ‘October’, 1987 by MIT.

If you are interested in Gödel’s mathematical and logical work have a look at ‘The Infinite’ by A W Moore, 1990, Routledge. It is a very clear and detailed book, made easy for the beginner. If you are brave or have a knowledge of logic or moths you might try ‘The Work of Kurt Gödel’ in ‘Gödel’s Theorem in Focus’, edited by Shanker, published by Croom Helm, 1988, pages 48-60.

CHAPTER NINE

Feminine Sexuality
This is a difficult topic. Freud’s papers are a good place to start: ‘On the Universal Tendency to Debasement in the Sphere of Love’, ‘The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex’ and ‘Some Psychical Consequences of the Anatomical Sex Distinction’ in ‘On Sexuality’, Pelican Freud Library Number 7.

‘Does The Woman Exist? From Freud’s hysteric to Lacan’s feminine’ is a fine book by Paul Verhaeghe, translated by Marc du Ry, published by Rebus Press, 1996.

See parts of Lacan’s seminar ‘En Corp / Encore’ in ‘Feminine Sexuality, especially ‘Feminine Sexuality in Psychoanalytic Doctrine’ and ‘God and the Jouissance of the Woman’, Jacques Lacan and The Ecole Freudienne’, translated by Rose, edited by Mitchel and Rose, 1982, Macmillian.

If you are interested in Cantor’s mathematical work, consider ‘The Infinite’ by A W Moore, 1990, Routledge. It is a very dear and detailed book, made easy for the beginner. ‘Georg Cantor, His Mathematics and Philosophy of the Infinite’, by Joseph Dauben, Princeton, 1990, is interesting but difficult and includes some higher mathematics.

CHAPTER TEN

Lacan’s most famous work on time is “Logical Time and the Assertion of Anticipated Certainty”, but he later changed his mind! This article is translated in ‘The Newsletter of the Freudian Field’, 1988, Volume 2, Number 2. Lacan’s latest and least comprehensible work was on topology.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

‘The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan’, edited Jacques-Alain Miller, translated Porter, Routledge, 1992, is a very rich and dense text. Challenging and stimulating, but not for the beginner.

Also consider:

• Death and Desire, Psychoanalytic Theory in Lacan’s Return to Freud, Richard Boothby, Routledge, 1991.
• Returning to Freud, Clinical Psychoanalysis in the School of Lacan, ed Schneiderman, Yale University Press, 1980. This book demonstrates how Lacanian ideas are used in practice with clients.
• A short and clear paper on a clinical approach informed by Lacanian theory can be found in a short paper called ‘Reflection on Impasse’ by James Gorney, in ‘Criticism and Lacan, Essays and Dialogue on Language, Structure, and the Unconscious’, edited by Patrick Hogan and Lalita Pandit, published by The University of Georgia Press, 1990.
• An excellent book is ‘An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis’, by Dylan Evans, Routledge (1996). This explains clearly many of Lacan’s technical terms, how he came to change them during his career, and his influences.

CLINICAL WORK

There are currently two organisations in England that are seriously interested in working clinically with Lacan’s ideas:

The Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research (CFAR) http://www.cfar.org.uk/

The London Society of the New Lacanian School http://www.londonsociety-nls.org.uk/