Book Description

Clinical and philosophical perspectives on key issues and debates in Lacanian psychoanalysis.

Lacan, Language, and Philosophy explores the linguistic turn in psychoanalysis taken by Jacques Lacan. Russell Grigg provides lively and accessible readings of Lacan and Freud that are grounded in clinical experience and informed by a background in analytic philosophy. He addresses key issues in Lacanian psychoanalysis, from the clinical (how psychosis results from the foreclosure of the signifier the Name-of-the Father; the father as a symbolic function; the place of transference) to the philosophical (the logic of the “pas-tout”; the link between the superego and Kant’s categorical imperative; a critique of Žižek’s account of radical change). Grigg’s expertise and knowledge of psychoanalysis produce a major contribution to contemporary philosophical and psychoanalytic debates.

Review

“This is an excellent, well-written, and important book by a major scholar. Grigg is unique, indeed famous, in the field for his combination of clarity, philosophical acumen, and scholarliness. His readings show the benefits of a combination of clinical experience, a scholarly eye, and a philosophical mindset.” — Henry Krips, author of Fetish: An Erotics of Culture

“Grigg presents exceptional articulations of crucial ideas within the Lacanian field. Some of these issues have been dealt with before by other Lacanians, but Grigg brings his own style, erudition, and grace to these questions.” — Kareen Ror Malone, coeditor of The Subject of Lacan: A Lacanian Reader for Psychologists