Jacques Lacan
Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) came to psychoanalysis by way of medicine and psychiatry. In 1951 he turned his attention to the training of analysts, and this was one of the issues which led him and his circle to part company with the Société Psychanalytique de Paris. He became, in 1953, the first President of a new group, the Société Française de Psychanalyse, whose declared aim was a return to the true teaching of Freud. Eleven years later the Société Française was dissolved and, under Lacan's direction, gave birth to the École Freudienne de Paris. Jacques Lacan was a practising psychoanalyst and teacher up until his death in 1981.
On the Names-of-the-Father
'What astonishing success The Name-of-the-Father has had! Everyone finds something in it. Who one's father is isn't immediately obvious, hardly being visible to the naked eye. Paternity is first and... (more)
Anxiety: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book X
Jacques Lacan is widely recognized as a key figure in the history of psychoanalysis and one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th Century. In this new translation of Anxiety, he explores the... (more)
The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis
Dr Lacan's writings, and especially the seminars for which he has become famous, have provoked intense controversies in French analytic circles, requiring as they do a radical reappraisal of the... (more)
Anxiety: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book X
Jacques Lacan is widely recognized as a key figure in the history of psychoanalysis and one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th Century. In this new translation of Anxiety, he explores the... (more)
On the Names-of-the-Father
What astonishing success The Name-of-the-Father has had! Everyone finds something in it. Who one's father is isn't immediately obvious, hardly being visible to the naked eye. Paternity is first and... (more)
The Triumph of Religion
'I am the product of priests', Lacan once said of himself. Educated by the Marist Brothers (or Little Brothers of Mary), he was a pious child and acquired considerable, personal knowledge of the... (more)
The Sinthome: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book XXIII
"Ten times, an elderly grey-haired man gets up on the stage. Ten times puffing and sighing. Ten times slowly tracing out strange multi-coloured arabesques that interweave, curling with the meanders... (more)
Formations of the Unconscious: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book V
'When I decided to explore the question of Witz, or wit, with you this year, I undertook a small enquiry. It will come as no surprise at all that I began by questioning a poet. This is a poet who... (more)
Desire and its Interpretation: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan Book VI
What does Lacan show us? He shows us that desire is not a biological function; that it is not correlated with a natural object; and that its object is fantasized. Because of this, desire is... (more)
Talking to Brick Walls: A Series of Presentations in the Chapel at Sainte-Anne Hospital
'I've been talking to brick walls,' says Lacan, meaning: 'Neither to you, nor to the Big Other. I'm speaking by myself. And this is precisely what interests you. It's up to you to interpret me.' ... (more)
The Sinthome: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XXIII
'Ten times, an elderly grey-haired man gets up on the stage. Ten times puffing and sighing. Ten times slowly tracing out strange multi-coloured arabesques that interweave, curling with the meanders... (more)
...or Worse: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XIX
"A chance meeting of a sewing machine and an umbrella. The impossible face-off between a whale and a polar bear. One was devised by Lautréamont; the other punctuated by Freud. Both are memorable. Why... (more)
From an Other to the other, Book XVI
Sollers once wrote that, to him, Claudel was first and foremost the man who wrote, “Paradise is around us at this very moment, all its forests attentive like a great orchestra that invisibly adores... (more)
My Teaching
Bringing together three previously unpublished lectures presented to the public by Lacan at the height of his career, and prefaced by Jacques-Alain Miller, My Teaching is a clear, concise... (more)
First Writings
Before he became an analyst, Lacan was a psychiatrist. The articles in the present volume would not be being republished if they didn’t invite us to read them retroactively. What can they teach us... (more)