Dany Nobus - Key Concepts of Lacanian Psychoanalysis

Since the 1980s, Lacanian ideas have stealthily yet steadily penetrated the social sciences, the arts and the humanities. The works of Lacan are currently a standard reference within cultural, gender and womens studies, and they also inspire many authors working within the realms of philosophy and political theory. At the same time, Lacanian ideas continue to spark off heated debates amongst psychoanalysts and lay-people alike. whereby Lacans numerous personal idiosyncrasies are often used as arguments ad hominem to minimize the value of his theoretical contributions.

Confronted with this broad dissemination of Lacanian thought and the multifarious controversies surrounding it, professional researchers, health care workers and students often try to find solace in psychoanalytic works of reference. Over the past decade, many works have been published in which psychoanalytic concepts, schemas, and symbols are defined in a brief, accessible format, although mainly in French and dealing with psychoanalysis in general rather than Lacanian theory as such.

Considering the scope and the quality of these materials, the primary Lacan-needs of the Anglo-American reader are already well catered for, which reduces the desirability of yet another introduction to Lacan. In conceiving Key Concepts of Lacanian Psychoanalysis I have tried to ensure that the book is neither an alternative, nor a complement to the existing works of reference. In the essays that follow, the newcomer to Lacanian psychoanalysis will not find any short definitions of terms, nor any concise expositions of what concepts and symbols mean within the various contexts in which they have appeared. Rather than a ready reference, each author provides an in-depth discussion of one particular notion, paying attention to the theoretical and/or practical context in which Lacan introduced it, the way in which the notion developed throughout his works, the questions it was designed to answer, and its relevance for clinical and/or sociocultural issues. Contrary to a readers companion, Key Concepts of Lacanian Psychoanalysis probes into the sources, dimensions and purposes of as few as eight Lacanian concepts, exploring how they relate to other Lacanian and non-Lacanian notions, and questioning their value for present-day clinical and non-clinical issues. In this sense, the book is not an alternative to the available compendia and introductions. Yet Key Concepts of Lacanian Psychoanalysis is neither a complement to these books, since it does not focus on Lacans general sociocultural legacy, nor strictly speaking on his life and works.

One might therefore assume that these essays are addressed to professional psychoanalysts, advanced Lacan-scholars and highbrow academics. Nothing could be less true. Key Concepts of Lacanian Psychoanalysis does not presuppose any familiarity with Lacanian theory on the part of the reader, nor a prior acquaintance with Lacans crits or seminars. Although all the essays proceed from a close reading of Lacans writings and lectures, they invite the reader to start his or her own reading rather than consolidating and building on an already accomplished groundwork. To facilitate the readers personal return to Lacan, each essay contains detailed and extensive references to primary and secondary source materials, as well as suggestions for further reading.

As the reader will notice, some of the primary sources are still unpublished and many of those which have already been published are not yet available in English. For the purposes of this book, the inclusion of these materials was necessary, since it is for example impossible to discuss the development of a concept throughout Lacans works without taking into account his unpublished seminars (some eighteen volumes) and those already published yet hitherto not officially translated into English (four volumes).

ln this sense, Lacans ideas from the 1970s display a higher degree of complexity than those from the 1950s, without the latter completely disappearing under the influence of the former. The early Lacan is often recognizable behind the faces of the middle and late Lacan. This does not mean that Lacans entire theory is always already there, contained in utero in his earliest contributions, since such an interpretation does not acknowledge the fact that when early concepts surface in a later context, they always acquire new meaning. But it neither implies that his is a theory of ongoing progress. A cursory reading of his texts and seminars from the 1970s suffices to recognize that his later developments are not a synthesis of the early ones. Lacan does not work towards the realization of absolute psychoanalytic knowledge, but rather towards a destabilization of knowledge whether somebody elses or his own that gives the impression of being firmly established. Lacans incessant challenge of ready-made psychoanalytic knowledge might also explain why there is currently no solid, unitary Lacanian Theory, and why such a Theory is unlikely to emerge from a close reading of his works.