Psychoanalytical Notebooks No. 35: Purloined Letters

Reading Lacan to the letter – a close reading of the late Lacan applied to life, literature, and clinic, and a fascinating analysis of a man who struggled to hold himself together by purloining a famous painting and forming a relationship with it. "Patrick prepared the robbery down to the last detail. He dyed his hair in order to escape recognition and planned the theft to coincide with Bastille Day. This meant that the noise of the helicopters, out for the celebrations, drowned out the museum’s alarms. He went inside and hid in a cup- board for six hours until the museum had closed and the staff had gone home. He had previously disabled the alarm system with a Stanley knife fixed to an orthopaedic cane and transformed into wire cutters. Only the alarm behind the picture rang when he took it off the wall. He wrapped the picture in a plastic bag and left without being seen."