In this book, fourteen Lacanian psychoanalysts from Italy and France present how they listen and understand clinical questions, and how they operate in session. More than a theoretical ‘introduction to Lacan’, this book stems from clinical issues, is written by practicing psychoanalysts and not only presents theoretical concepts, but also their use in practice. Psychoanalytic listening is the leitmotif of this book. How, and what, does a psychoanalyst listen to/for? How to effectively listen, and thus understand, something from the unconscious? Further, this book examines the evolution of psychic symptoms since Freud’s Studies on Hysteria to today, and how the clinical work has changed. It introduces the differences between 'classic' discourses and ‘modern’ symptoms, with also a spotlight on some transversal issues. Chapters include hysteria, obsessive discourse and phobia, paranoia, panic disorder, anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating and obesity, depressions, addictions, borderline cases, the relationship with the mother, perversion, clinic of the void, and jealousy. Despite possessing the same theoretical reference of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, the contributors of this book belong to different associations and groups, and each of them provides several examples taken from their own practice. Lacanian Psychoanalysis in Practice is of great interest to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, students and academics from the international psychoanalytic community.

The Practice of Lacanian Psychoanalysis lays out an Aristotelian framework to account for the different types of knowing and not-knowing operative in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. The book proposes a new model for diagnosis, giving preference to fewer over more diagnoses, and seeks to better organize them by distinguishing between structure and surface symptoms. It examines many principles of Lacanian clinical practice, including different types of frames and evidence, the practice of citation and listening, the resistance and desire of the analyst, transference love as a metaphor, the role of negative transference at the end of analysis, and the identification with the sinthome as Lacan's last formulation regarding the end of analysis. The text also suggests that there are three forms of love and hate based on the works of Lacan and Winnicott. Underpinned by extensive practical knowledge of the clinic and case examples for clinicians, analysts, and practicing Lacanian analysts, this book should be of interest to academics, scholars, and clinicians alike.

The work of Jacques Lacan is associated more with literature and philosophy than mainstream American psychology, due in large part to the dense language he employs in articulating his theory – including often at the expense of clinical illustration. As a result, his contributions are frequently fascinating, yet their utility in the therapeutic setting can be difficult to pinpoint. Lacanian Psychotherapy fills in this clinical gap by presenting theoretical discussions in clear, accessible language and applying them to several chapter-length case studies, thereby demonstrating their clinical relevance. The central concern of the book is the usefulness of Lacan's notion that the unconscious is structured like and by language. This concept implies a peculiar manner of listening ("to the letter") and intervention, which Miller applies to a number of common clinical concerns – including including case formulation, dreams, transference, and diagnosis – including all in the context of real-world psychotherapy.

The Desire of Psychoanalysis proposes that recognizing how certain theoretical and institutional problems in Lacanian psychoanalysis are grounded in the historical conditions of Lacan’s own thinking might allow us to overcome these impasses. In order to accomplish this, Gabriel Tupinambá analyzes the socioeconomic practices that underlie the current institutional existence of the Lacanian community—its political position as well as its institutional history—in relation to theoretical production. By focusing on the underlying dynamic that binds clinical practice, theoretical work, and institutional security in Lacanian psychoanalysis today, Tupinambá is able to locate sites for conceptual innovation that have been ignored by the discipline, such as the understanding of the role of money in clinical practice, the place of analysands in the transformation of psychoanalytic theory, and ideological dead-ends that have become common sense in the Lacanian field. The Desire of Psychoanalysis thus suggests ways of opening up psychoanalysis to new concepts and clinical practices and calls for a transformation of how psychoanalysis is understood as an institution.

Jacques Lacan and the Freudian Practice of Psychoanalysis paints a completely new picture of the man and his ideas. The book suceeds in showing how ideas can become more accessible, and re-evaluates his significance within the field of psychodynamic psychotherapy. The book is structured thematically around five key issues: diagnosis, the analyst's position during the treatment, the management of transference, the formulation of interpretations, and the organisation of analytic training. For each of these issues, Lacan's entire work both published and unpublished material, has been taken into account and theoretical principles have been illustrated with clinical examples. The book also contains the first complete bibliography of Lacan's works in English. Clear, detailed, and wide ranging, Jacques Lacan and the Freudian Practice of Psychoanalysis will prove essential reading, not only for professionals and students within the fields of psychology and psychiatry, but for all those keen to discover a new Lacan.

"The goal of my teaching has always been, and remains, to train analysts." --Jacques Lacan, Seminar XI, 209 Arguably the most profound psychoanalytic thinker since Freud, and deeply influential in many fields, Jacques Lacan often seems opaque to those he most wanted to reach. These are the readers Bruce Fink addresses in this clear and practical account of Lacan's highly original approach to therapy. Written by a clinician for clinicians, Fink's Introduction is an invaluable guide to Lacanian psychoanalysis, how it's done, and how it differs from other forms of therapy. While elucidating many of Lacan's theoretical notions, the book does so from the perspective of the practitioner faced with the pressing questions of diagnosis, what therapeutic stance to adopt, how to involve the patient, and how to bring about change. Fink provides a comprehensive overview of Lacanian analysis, explaining the analyst's aims and interventions at each point in the treatment. He uses four case studies to elucidate Lacan's unique structural approach to diagnosis. These cases, taking up both theoretical and clinical issues in Lacan's views of psychosis, perversion, and neurosis, highlight the very different approaches to treatment that different situations demand.

In this important work, Danièle Brillaud provides an illuminating exploration of major concepts in Jacques Lacan's notoriously difficult writings, the Écrits. To illustrate the theory, she discusses clinical cases and examples from the treatment of patients with a wide range of psychiatric disorders. This book is intended as an introduction to Lacanian theory and practice. Concrete examples show the interdependence of clinical work and conceptual formalization in Lacan's reading of Freud. A spectrum of disorders and clinical issues is presented, including delusional misidentification syndromes, paranoid psychosis and schizophrenia, hypochondria, Cotard delusion, fetishism, the differential diagnosis of neurosis and psychosis, and more. Brillaud highlights the roots of Lacan's thought in classical French psychiatry and brings out the clinical relevance of his references to linguistics, literature, and topology. Her approach to treating and understanding psychopathology provides invaluable insight into Lacanian theory and clinical practice. This book will be of interest to students of psychoanalysis, clinical psychology, and psychiatry who would like to get a better understanding of Lacan's work and its clinical application, as well as to more experienced clinicians who are interested in the diagnosis and treatment of patients in Lacanian psychoanalysis.

The highly arcane "wisdom" produced by the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan is either endlessly regurgitated and recited as holy writ by his numerous acolytes, or radically dismissed as unpalatable nonsense by his equally countless detractors. Contrary to these common, strictly antagonistic yet uniformly uncritical practices, this book offers a meticulous critique of some key theoretical and clinical aspects of Lacan’s expansive oeuvre, testing their consistency, examining their implications, and investigating their significance. In nine interrelated chapters, the book highlights both the flaws and the strengths of Lacan’s ideas, in areas of investigation that are as crucial as they are contentious, within as well as outside psychoanalysis. Drawing on a vast range of source materials, including many unpublished archival documents, it teases out controversial issues such as money, organisational failure, and lighthearted, "gay" thinking, and it relies on the highest standards of scholarly excellence to develop its arguments. At the same time, the book does not presuppose any prior knowledge of Lacanian psychoanalysis on the part of the reader, but allows its readership to indulge in the joys of in-depth critical analysis, trans-disciplinary creative thinking, and persistent questioning. This book will appeal to researchers and students alike in psychoanalytic studies and philosophy, as well as all those interested in French theory and the history of ideas.

Among the numerous introductions to Lacan published to date in English, Philippe Julien's work is certainly outstanding. Beyond its conceptual clarity the book constitutes an excellent guide to Lacanian psychoanalytic practice. --Andr Patsalides, Psychoanalyst and President, Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis From 1953 to 1980, Jacques Lacan sought to accomplish a return to Freud beyond post- Freudianism. He defined this return as a new convenant with the meaning to the Freudian discovery. Each year through his teaching, he brought about this return. What was at stake in this renewal? Philippe Julien, who joined Lacan's Ecole Freudienne de Paris in 1968, attempts to answer this question. Situtated in the period after-Lacan, Julien shows that Lacan's return to Freud was neither a closing of the Freudian text by responding to questions left unanswered nor a reopening of the text by giving endless new interpretations. Neither dogmatic nor hermeneutic, Lacan's return to Frued was the return of an inevitable discordance between our experience of the unconscious and any attempt to give an account of it. For the unconscious, by its very nature, disappears at the same moment as it is discovered. It is in this sense that the author can claim that Lacan's return to Freud will have been Freudian. Constantly challenging the reader to submit to the rigors of Lacan's sinuous thinking, this penetrating work goes far beyond being a mere introduction. Rendered into elegant English by the American translator, who added numerous footnotes and scholarly references to the French original, this study brings Lacanian scholarship among English readers to a new level of sophistication. Neither dogmatic nor hermeneutic, Lacan's return to Freud was the return of an inevitable discordance between our experience of the unconscious and any attempt to give an account of it. For the unconscious, by its very nature, disappears at the same moment as it is discovered. It is in this sense that the author can claim that Lacan's return to Freud was Freudian.

Jacques Lacan's thinking revolutionised the theory and practice of psychoanalysis and had a major impact in fields as diverse as film studies, literary criticism, feminist theory and philosophy. Yet his writings are notorious for their complexity and idiosyncratic style. Emphasising the clinical basis of Lacan's work, An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis is an ideal companion to his ideas for readers in every discipline where his influence is felt. The Dictionary features: * over 200 entries, explaining Lacan's own terminology and his use of common psychoanalytic expressions * details of the historical and institutional context of Lacan's work * reference to the origins of major concepts in the work of Freud, Saussure, Hegel and other key thinkers * a chronology of Lacan's life and works.