At the beginning of each chapter in this collection is a reproduction of a classic psychoanalytic schema or model, ranging from Freud's first and second topographies, to Lacan's Schema -L-. Each contributor uses the diagram as a means of elucidating the theory and practice of the respective schools of psychoanalysis.

This is a stunning and original book that breaks new ground in the field of contemporary literature. Informed by Greek and Shakespearean tragedy, readings of Lacan, Freud and P. G. Wodehouse, its principal themes are maternal desire; the structure of tragic thought; writing itself, and the possibility of finding seemingly impossible pathways through the suffering of lived experience. It is, among other things, a love story, a philosophical inquiry, an artwork, a collection of poetry, and--a book of jokes. Judith Gracie writes an expansive, -everyone welcome- style of epic, one which is proof...