Table of Contents
Preface vii
Introduction 1
The Symbolic
I. Freudian Preludes: Love Triangles 9Obsessives in Love • Hysterics in Love
II. Freudian Conundrums: Love Is Incompatible with Desire 16“Where They Love They Do Not Desire” • “Where They Desire They Do Not Love” • On Women, Love, and Desire • Too Little • Too Much
III. Lacan’s Reading of Plato’s Symposium 33Love Is Giving What You Don’t Have • Not Having and Not Knowing • Love as a Metaphor: The Signification of Love • The Miracle of Love • Love in the Analytic Context
The Imaginary
IV. Freudian Preludes: Narcissism 55Narcissism and Love • Love for the Ego-Ideal
V. Lacan’s Imaginary Register 62Animals in the Imaginary • Animals in Love • The Formative Role of Images in Human Beings • The Mirror Stage • The Image We Love More Than Ourselves: The Ideal Ego • The Myth of Narcissus • Sibling Rivalry • Lacan’s “Beloved”: Crimes of Passion • “Family Complexes” • Transitivism • The Intrusion (or Fraternal) Complex and the “Solipsistic Ego” • Love and Psychosis • The Dangers of Imaginary-Based Love • Imaginary Passion in the Analytic Setting
The Real
VI. Love and the Real 93Repetition Compulsion • The Unsymbolizable • Love at First Sight • The Other Jouissance • Love Is Real? • Love and the Drives • Love as a Link
General Considerations on Love
VII. Languages and Cultures of Love 107Dependency (or so-called Natural Love) • Attachment • Friendship • Agape (or Christian Love) • Hatred • Attraction • Fixation on the Human Form (Beauty) • Physical Love, Sexual Desire, Lust, Concupiscence, Sex Drive • Fin’Amor (Courtly Love) • Romantic Love • Falling in Love (à la Stendhal) • Other Languages and Cultures of Love
VIII. Reading Plato with Lacan: Further Commentary on Plato’s Symposium 163The Relationship between Form and Content in the Symposium • Homosexual Love as a Simplified Model • Phaedrus: Love and Theology • Pausanias: The Psychology of the Rich • Eryximachus: Love as Harmony • Agathon’s Speech • Socrates’ Speech and the In-Between (Metaxú) • Love Triangles Revisited • The Six Stages of Socrates’ Speech • After Socrates’ Speech • The “Mystery” of the Relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades • Socrates’ “Interpretation” • Socrates’ “Mistake” • Parting Shot
IX. Some Possible Conclusions about Love 200Unanswered Questions • Love and Psychoanalysis
Notes 207
References 236
Index 246