The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XVIII: On a Discourse that Might not be a Semblance, 1971

Le Séminaire #18

by Jacques Lacan, Cormac Gallagher (Translator)

From unedited French manuscripts.

Genres: France, Psychology, Philosophy, Theory

Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and doctor, who made prominent contributions to the psychoanalytic movement. His yearly seminars, conducted in Paris from 1953 until his death in 1981, were a major influence in the French intellectual milieu of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly among post-structuralist thinkers.

Lacan's ideas centered on Freudian concepts such as the unconscious, the castration complex, the ego, focusing on identifications, and the centrality of language to subjectivity. His work was interdisciplinary, drawing on linguistics, philosophy, mathematics, amongst others. Although a controversial and divisive figure, Lacan is widely read in critical theory, literary studies, and twentieth-century French philosophy, as well as in the living practice of clinical psychoanalysis.

Reviews

[Blaze-Pascal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great seminar. This is the follow up to the Other side of psychoanalysis. Lacan has introduced the four discourses, plus-de-jouir (surplus enjoyment), la femme n'ex-siste pas, there is no metalanguage, il n'ya pas de rapport sexuel, the logic of sexuation.... plus interesting reading of Confucianism (Master Kong) and Mencius (Master Meng). Pushed me to understand more about these central concepts of the late Lacanian period, all within the backdrop of the '68 protests.

[Leonardo]

En el Seminario XVIII (Le savoir du psychanalyste, 1970-1971), Lacan juega con la idea de un discurso específicamente capitalista (o discurso del capitalista) que tendría la misma estructura que el discurso del Amo, pero con la primera pareja (izquierda) intercambiando posición: $ ocupa el lugar del agente y el significante Amo el lugar de la verdad...

El año que soñamos peligrosamente Pág.59

[Miguel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lacan’s best rendering of the logic of the phallus and the nonrelation. He emphasizes something poorly understood even by contemporary Lacanians, “the phallus … is not the signifier of lack … but rather something from which no words flow” (149).

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t find the official translation on here yet, since it came out in the UK but not in the US yet. He definitely answered a few questions, but gave me a few more to ponder as well, of course. This was ok, but I always say that the first time I read.

I loved the Chinese stuff! Hilarious.