The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance

by Bruce Fink

Overview

This book presents the radically new theory of subjectivity found in the work of Jacques Lacan. Against the tide of post-structuralist thinkers who announce "the death of the subject," Bruce Fink explores what it means to come into being as a subject where impersonal forces once reigned, subjectify the alien roll of the dice at the beginning of our universe, and make our own knotted web of our parents' desires that led them to bring us into this world.

Lucidly guiding readers through the labyrinth of Lacanian theory--unpacking such central notions as the Other, object a, the unconscious as structures like a language, alienation and separation, the paternal metaphor, jouissance, and sexual difference--Fink demonstrates in-depth knowledge of Lacan's theoretical and clinical work. Indeed, this is the first book to appear in English that displays a firm grasp of both theory and practice of Lacanian psychoanalysis, the author being one of the only Americans to have undergone full training with Lacan's school in Paris.

Fink Leads the reader step by step into Lacan's conceptual system to explain how one comes to be a subject--leading to psychosis. Presenting Lacan's theory in the context of his clinical preoccupations, Fink provides the most balanced, sophisticated, and penetrating view of Lacan's work to date--invaluable to the initiated and the uninitiated alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781400885671
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	02/15/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	21 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Bruce Fink is a practicing Lacanian psychoanalyst, analytic supervisor, member of the Ecole de la Cause freudienne in Paris, and Professor of Psychology at Duquesne University. He is the author of A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Theory and Technique.

Table of Contents

Preface
Pt. 1 Structure: Alienation and the Other
1 Language and Otherness 3
A Slip of the Other's Tongue 3
The Unconscious 7
Foreign Bodies 11
2 The Nature of Unconscious Thought, or How the Other Half "Thinks" 14
Heads or Tails 16
Randomness and Memory 19
The Unconscious Assembles 20
Knowledge without a Subject 22
3 The Creative Function of the Word: The Symbolic and the Real 24
Trauma 26
Interpretation Hits the Cause 28
Incompleteness of the Symbolic Order: The (W)hole in the Other 29
Kinks in the Symbolic Order 30
Structure versus Cause 31
Pt. 2 The Lacanian Subject
4 The Lacanian Subject 35
The Lacanian Subject Is Not the "Individual" or Conscious Subject of Anglo-American Philosophy 36
The Lacanian Subject Is Not the Subject of the Statement 37
The Lacanian Subject Appears Nowhere in What Is Said 38
The Fleetingness of the Subject 41
The Freudian Subject 42
The Cartesian Subject and Its Inverse 42
Lacan's Split Subject 44
Beyond the Split Subject 46
5 The Subject and the Other's Desire 49
Alienation and Separation 49
The Vel of Alienation 51
Desire and Lack in Separation 53
The Introduction of a Third Term 55
Object a: The Other's Desire 59
A Further Separation: The Traversing of Fantasy 61
Subjectifying the Cause: A Temporal Conundrum 63
Alienation, Separation, and the Traversing of Fantasy in the Analytic Setting 66
6 Metaphor and the Precipitation of Subjectivity 69
The Signified 70
Two Faces of the Psychoanalytic Subject 72
The Subject as Signified 72
The Subject as Breach 77
Pt. 3 The Lacanian Object: Love, Desire, Jouissance
7 Object (a): Cause of Desire 83
"Object Relations" 84
Imaginary Objects, Imaginary Relations 84
The Other as Object, Symbolic Relations 87
Real Objects, Encounters with the Real 90
Lost Objects 93
The Freudian Thing 95
Surplus Value, Surplus Jouissance 96
8 There's No Such Thing as a Sexual Relationship 98
Castration 99
The Phallus and the Phallic Function 101
"There's No Such Thing as a Sexual Relationship" 104
Distinguishing between the Sexes 105
The Formulas of Sexuation 108
A Dissymmetry of Partners 113
Woman[crossed off] Does Not Exist 115
Masculine/Feminine-Signifier/Signifierness 117
Other to Herself, Other Jouissance 119
The Truth of Psychoanalysis 121
Existence and Ex-sistence 122
A New Metaphor for Sexual Difference 123
Pt. 4 The Status of Psychoanalytic Discourse
9 The Four Discourses 129
The Master's Discourse 130
The University Discourse 132
The Hysteric's Discourse 133
The Analyst's Discourse 135
The Social Situation of Psychoanalysis 136
There's No Such Thing as a Metalanguage 137
10 Psychoanalysis and Science 138
Science as Discourse 138
Suturing the Subject 139
Science, the Hysteric's Discourse, and Psychoanalytic Theory 141
The Three Registers and Differently "Polarized" Discourses 142
Formalization and the Transmissibility of Psychoanalysis 144
The Status of Psychoanalysis 145
The Ethics of Lacanian Psychoanalysis 146
Afterword 147
Appendix 1: The Language of the Unconscious 153
Appendix 2: Stalking the Cause 165
Glossary of Lacanian Symbols 173
Acknowledgments 175
Notes 177
Bibliography 207
Index 213

What People are Saying About This

Richard Klein

Fink provides the first clear, comprehensive, systematic account of Lacan's work in English. The influence of this book is certain to be immense on theorists and therapists alike as it provides the fully articulated foundations for a Lacanian pedagogy, and makes generally available a radically new understanding of the analyst's role. A magnificent piece of intellectual synthesis, an imposing and original contribution to psychoanalytic thought.
— Richard Klein, Cornell University

From the Publisher

"Fink provides the first clear, comprehensive, systematic account of Lacan's work in English. The influence of this book is certain to be immense on theorists and therapists alike as it provides the fully articulated foundations for a Lacanian pedagogy, and makes generally available a radically new understanding of the analyst's role. A magnificent piece of intellectual synthesis, an imposing and original contribution to psychoanalytic thought."—Richard Klein, Cornell University

Editorial Reviews

"The Lacanian Subject not only provides an excellent introduction into the fundamental coordinates of Jacques Lacan's conceptual network; it also proposes original solutions to (or at least clarifications of) some of the crucial dilemmas left open by Lacan's work."—-Slavoj Zizek, Journal for Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society

From the Publisher

The Lacanian Subject not only provides an excellent introduction into the fundamental coordinates of Jacques Lacan's conceptual network; it also proposes original solutions to (or at least clarifications of) some of the crucial dilemmas left open by Lacan's work.

Journal for Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society - Slavoj Zizek

The Lacanian Subject not only provides an excellent introduction into the fundamental coordinates of Jacques Lacan's conceptual network; it also proposes original solutions to (or at least clarifications of) some of the crucial dilemmas left open by Lacan's work.
— Slavoj Zizek

Journal for Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society