Table Of Contenti
“It all began with an improbable wager: ask 35 scholars to each write something
intelligible about every single paragraph in one of the texts included in Jacques Lacan’s
magnum opus, Écrits, so as to generate a commentary on the entire 800- page volume.
And yet, after years of preparation, the wager has paid off: we have here useful and
at times brilliant examples of textual explication! Cryptic formulations are lucidly
unpacked, and mysterious references are provided, giving the serious reader myriad
keys to fascinating texts.”
– Bruce Fink, translator of Écrits: The First Complete
Edition in English
“Let’s face it: Lacan’s Écrits, one of the classical texts of modern thought, are
unreadable – they remain impenetrable if we just pick the thick volume up and start
to read it. Neill, Vanheule and Hook provide what we were all waiting for: a detailed
commentary which does not aim to replace reading Écrits but to render it possible.
The three volumes do wonder, their effect is no less than magic: when, after getting
stuck at a particularly dense page of Écrits, we turn to the corresponding pages in the
commentary and then return to the page of Écrits which pushed us to madness, the
same lines appear in all the clarity of their line of thought. It is thus a safe p rediction
that Neill, Vanheule and Hook’s commentary will become a kind of permanent
companion of the English translation of Écrits, indispensable for everyone who wants
to find her or his way in its complex texture.”
– Slavoj Žižek
“Lacan’s teaching is notoriously hard to access and comprehend. But this is done
on purpose: to understanding the psyche, the subject and its interaction with
socio- political reality cannot be a piecemeal operation. One needs to take into account
the paradoxical and often counterintuitive effects of unconscious mechanisms, and of
the extimate operation of the real within and beyond the symbolic and the imaginary.
Coupling exegesis with multi-l evel interpretations, the numerous texts in this volume
advance a commentary, both informative and suggestive, that will immensely help
readers navigate the archipelago of the Lacanian Écrits, without reducing in the least
their complexity and inspirational value, without sacrificing their ability to surprise,
provoke and jolt us out of our complacency.”
– Yannis Stavrakakis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
“These essays will be an invaluable resource not only for those approaching the
Écrits for the first time but also for seasoned readers. Broad in scope yet following
the detail of the text, they help guide us through Lacan’s difficult prose, elucidating,
contextualising and clarifying, and reminding us time and time again of the precision,
power and originality of his rethinking of psychoanalysis.”
– Darian Leader
ii
iii
READING LACAN’S ÉCRITS: FROM
‘THE FREUDIAN THING’ TO
‘REMARKS ON DANIEL LAGACHE’
The Écrits was Jacques Lacan’s single most important text, a landmark in
psychoanalysis which epitomized his aim of returning to Freud via structural
linguistics, philosophy and literature. Reading Lacan’s Écrits is the first
extensive set of commentaries on the complete edition of Lacan’s Écrits to be
published in English.
An invaluable document in the history of psychoanalysis, and one of the
most challenging intellectual works of the twentieth century, Lacan’s Écrits still
today begs the interpretative engagement of clinicians, scholars, philosophers
and cultural theorists. The three volumes of Reading Lacan’s Écrits offer
just this: a series of systematic paragraph-b y- paragraph commentaries – by
some of the world’s most renowned Lacanian analysts and scholars – on
the complete edition of the Écrits, inclusive of lesser- known articles such as
‘Kant with Sade,’ ‘The Youth of Gide,’ ‘Science and Truth,’ ‘Presentation on
Transference’ and ‘Beyond the “Reality Principle”.’
The originality and importance of Lacan’s Écrits to psychoanalysis and
intellectual history is matched only by the text’s notorious inaccessibility.
Reading Lacan’s Écrits is an indispensable companion piece and reference-t ext
for clinicians and scholars exploring Lacan’s magnum opus. Not only does it
contextualize, explain and interrogate Lacan’s arguments, it provides m ultiple
interpretative routes through this most labyrinthine of texts.
Reading Lacan’s Écrits provides an incisive and accessible companion
for psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists in training and in
practice, as well as philosophers, cultural theorists and literary, social science
and humanities researchers who wish to draw upon Lacan’s pivotal work.
Derek Hook is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Duquesne University
in Pittsburgh and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Pretoria.
A former lecturer at the London School of Economics and at Birkbeck
College, he is a psychoanalytic practitioner, and the author of Six Moments
in Lacan.
iv
Calum Neill is an Associate Professor of Psychoanalysis and Cultural Theory
at Edinburgh Napier University. He is the author of Without Ground: Lacanian
Ethics and the Assumption of Subjectivity, Ethics and Psychology: Beyond
Codes of Practice and Jacques Lacan: The Basics.
Stijn Vanheule is a Clinical Psychologist and a Professor of Psychoanalysis
and Clinical Psychology at Ghent University, Belgium. He is also a privately
practicing psychoanalyst and a member of the New Lacanian School for
Psychoanalysis. He is the author of The Subject of Psychosis: A Lacanian
Perspective and Psychiatric Diagnosis Revisited – From DSM to Clinical Case
Formulation.
v
READING LACAN’S
ÉCRITS: FROM ‘THE
FREUDIAN THING’
TO ‘REMARKS ON
DANIEL LAGACHE’
Edited by Derek Hook, Calum Neill
and Stijn Vanheule
vi
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Derek Hook, Calum Neill and Stijn Vanheule;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Derek Hook, Calum Neill and Stijn Vanheule to be identified as the authors of
the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-i n- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Names: Hook, Derek, editor. | Neill, Calum, 1968– editor. |
Vanheule, Stijn, 1974– editor.
Title: Reading Lacan’s Écrits : from ‘The Freudian thing’ to ‘Remarks
on Daniel Lagache’ / edited by Derek Hook, Calum Neill and Stijn Vanheule.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; NewYork, NY : Routledge, 2019. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019011802 (print) | LCCN 2019013669 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780429294310 (Master) | ISBN 9781000020908 (Adobe) |
ISBN 9781000021073 (Mobipocket) |
ISBN 9781000021240 (ePub3) |
ISBN 9780415707978 (hardback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780415707985 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Lacan, Jacques, 1901–1981. âEcrits. | Psychoanalysis.
Classification: LCC BF173.L1423 (ebook) |
LCC BF173.L1423 R433 2019 (print) |
DDC 150.19/5–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019011802
ISBN: 978- 0- 415- 70797- 8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 415- 70798- 5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 429- 29431- 0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Newgen Publishing UK
vii
CONTENTS
List of figures ix
Contributors x
Acknowledgements xii
Jacques Lacan’s seminars xiii
Introduction to ‘Reading the Écrits’: La trahison de l’écriture 1
DEREK HOOK, CALUM NEILL AND STIJN VANHEULE
1 The Freudian Thing, or the Meaning of the Return to
Freud in Psychoanalysis 6
ADRIAN JOHNSTON
2 Psychoanalysis and its Teaching 67
MICHAEL J. MILLER
3 The Situation of Psychoanalysis and the Training of
Psychoanalysts in 1956 104
PATRICIA GHEROVICI AND MANYA STEINKOLER
4 The Instance of the Letter in the Unconscious, or
Reason Since Freud 131
CALUM LISTER MATHESON
5 On a Question Prior to Any Possible Treatment
of Psychosis 163
STIJN VANHEULE
vii
viii
CONTENTS
6 The Direction of the Treatment and the Principles
of its Power 206
REITSKE MEGANCK AND RUTH INSLEGERS
7 Remarks on Daniel Lagache’s Presentation:
“Psychoanalysis and Personality Structure” 254
ED PLUTH
Index 289
viii
ix
FIGURES
1.1 The L- schema 45
4.1 The algorithm of linguistics 138
4.2 Lacan’s first variation on the algorithm of linguistics 138
4.3 Lacan’s second variation on the algorithm of linguistics 139
5.1 The R- schema 182
5.2 Lacan’s general formula for metaphor 183
5.3 Metaphor of the Name- of- the- Father 184
5.4 The I- schema 197
6.1 The L- schema 208
6.2 Elementary cell of the graph of desire 237
6.3 Complete graph of desire 244
7.1 Inverted bouquet illusion 276
7.2 Variation on the inverted bouquet illusion 277
7.3 Second variation on the inverted bouquet illusion 283
ix
