To assimilate a writer as allusive as Lacan is to enter into an entire culture. However firm their grounding in Freud, readers of Lacan must learn to rethink psychoanalysis with a speculative breadth sometimes exceeding that of Freud himself. This book, designed to clarify the works of a controversial and influential figure, is the first collection of critical essays to appear in English since Lacan's own writings began to be widely distributed in translation.

Drawing on psychology, philosophy, literary criticism, and clinical and theoretical psychiatry, this volume explores the full...